The Art of War
by SixPerfections
Summary: Lung has a teenage daughter who's been estranged from him for most of her life. When she triggers unexpectedly he sends for her to come live with him in Brockton Bay. Now she has to reconcile her socially conventional morals and upbringing with being the newest cape of the ABB. When in doubt she will turn to the ancient texts for wisdom, including her favorite: The Art of War
1. Chapter 1

==========  
 **Chapter 1**

"According as circumstances are favorable, one should modify one's plans."

 _-Sun Tzu, The Art of War, Chapter 1, Verse 17.  
_

 **October 8, 2010  
**  
I sighed for what was probably the tenth time in the last twenty minutes as I looked out the window of the grey sedan I was riding in. Brockton Bay had a reputation for being a rough town that was down on it's luck and nothing I had seen so far had done anything to make me doubt that. Detroit of the East they called it, except with with less empty automobile factories and more Parahuman crime. Someplace people fled from in droves and someplace no one in their right mind would move to unless they had a very good reason to or didn't have a choice.

Like me. Unfortunately I definitely didn't have much of a choice in moving here. As to having a good reason? Well... I certainly hoped so. But I really didn't want to get my hopes up.

 _"You see there Shiba-san,"_ said the thirty-something Asian man chauffeuring me in passable Japanese while pointing at something out the window, _"the green and red art work on the walls? That marks the edge of our territory. The borders of our turf are always the most contested and where most of the nasty action happens. Further in things tend to be a lot more peaceful, most of the time."_

 _"That's nice,"_ I answered distractedly in the same language. Looking at the passing buildings it was hard to miss the large murals on the walls depicting Chinese dragons done almost entirely in green and red. Here and there there were smaller images graffitied on but they all seemed to share the same motif; some kind of dragon iconography, either Eastern or Western, done in some variation of red and green.

I shifted uncomfortably, gripping the straps of my backpack in the seat next to me just to have something to do with my hands. I'd intellectually known what he did for years but this was as close as I'd come to seeing any of it up close and personal. I still didn't know what to think even after having had a couple of days with nothing but time _to_ think. Everything had happened and was happening so damn fast. Just five days ago I had been a mostly regular teen living a more or less normal life in Tampa. Now I was a Parahuman who was 'wanted for questioning' by the Protectorate back in Florida. It was dizzying how much my life had been turned on it's head in such a short period of time.

Of course the biggest change was moving here to Brockton Bay. To live with _him_. I was equal parts nervous and terrified. And Goddamn it I couldn't help but be a bit hopeful too. Maybe there was a silver lining in all of this craziness. Maybe this meant I would actually get to have a relationship with my own father.

 _"In case you're curious about where you'll be staying, you'll be happy to know I managed to set up a two bedroom apartment just for you,"_ the driver said, _"fully furnished and with a new state of the art entertainment system. You'll get to decorate it how you like of course. It's in the same building your father stays in, just a couple of floors below his own apartment."_

I felt something odd twist in my chest at hearing that. We weren't going to be living together? _No, of course not,_ a part of me thought bitterly. I honestly hadn't given our living arrangements much thought but I'd just assumed... well, what had I expected? We hadn't seen each other for over three years now and we'd _never_ lived together. Just sticking us together to live in the same place would most likely have been awkward. Besides I'd just turned seventeen. What seventeen year old wouldn't want their own apartment? I'd probably be much happier having my own space and privacy anyway.

It still hurt though. It made me wonder if he didn't really want _me_ around and just forced me to move here because he was looking for a chance to add my new powers to his little gang. I really, really hoped that wasn't the case.

 _"What was your name again? And how come you're the one who set up an apartment for me?"_ I asked the man. It occurred to me then that this guy most likely knew the civilian identity of Lung, and if that was true most likely knew that I was a Parahuman as well.

 _"The name's Yao Lang,"_ said the man cheerfully, thankfully not sounding offended that I'd forgotten his name even though he'd introduced himself when he'd picked me up at the airport. _"I'm sort of like your father's non powered right hand man-slash-assistant. I handle all the little details, logistics, troubleshooting, things like that. He looks at the big picture it's my job to ensure everything goes smoothly. If you have any problems you can come to me and I'll take care of it."_

 _"Huh. Thanks,"_ I said. It was kind of surprising having such a friendly reception from someone I knew had to be a gangster. Then again his job sounded more like an errand boy. It... sort of made sense? While I didn't know my father very well I couldn't picture him picking up his own dry cleaning. Made sense he had someone to do that for him. Examining the man from where I was seated however I could see scars on his knuckles and an old faded one on his temple. Yao Lang didn't look soft, in fact he looked like he spent a lot of his free time running or at the gym. He'd probably proven himself and worked his way up to what was probably considered a nice cushy job.

 _"Ah, we're here,"_ said Yao as he began to pull up to a building. It was painted a pristine white and was at least five stories tall from where I could see. I couldn't help but notice that a building that nice seemed slightly out of place with the rest of the neighborhood. With the click of a remote a heavy duty metal gate that looked like it could stop a small tank moved aside and let us enter an underground garage. There were some cars down there but overall it was remarkably empty.

 _"State of the art security. A lot of our higher ups live here, I'd say about half. We own the property too - or rather I should say we own the man who owns the property. There are a lot of people who live here who aren't one of us though so be mindful of that. It makes for good camouflage,"_ Yao said as he pulled into an empty parking spot.

I hesitantly got out of the car once it stopped, taking my backpack with me and putting it on. _"Are you sure you should be telling me all this?"_ I asked Yao. That he was being so free with information set off some alarm bells in my head.

 _"Yeah it's not problem,"_ he said with an animated grin as he moved to take my suitcases out of the trunk, _"you're going to be working with your dad soon. You'll need to know all this stuff anyway."  
_  
I turned away from him as he unloaded my bags so he wouldn't see the frown on my face. I'd half wanted - and expected - that I might be like one of those girls in those Aleph gangster movies. The ones where their fathers kept the girls ignorant and far away from the family business while still doing their best to do what they could to be good fathers and family men. However apparently I was already being fitted for a red and green uniform. Part of me felt I should be outraged at that. I was kind of pissed but... I honestly didn't know how I felt about being part of dad's gang one way or the other. Maybe working with him would let us bond or something. As long as he didn't expect me to do something too repulsive or unsavory.

I followed Yao as he carried my two battered suitcases for me... which felt a little silly since I knew I now merited a Brute rating even "untransformed" and he was just a regular guy. He led us to an elevator attached directly to the garage. I was fidgety as I stepped inside and he pushed two different buttons for two different floors.  
 _  
"The boss wanted to see you as soon as you arrived,"_ my stomach dropped and roiled nervously at his words, _"He's got the top floor all to himself so just knock on the door. I'll drop off your bags in your new place and leave the keys on the counter so just come whenever you're done. I'll leave the door unlocked so you can get in. Apartment 404."  
_  
I honestly wanted to run away. Maybe hide myself in my new apartment for a while and hope that with enough time I might be more mentally prepared for this. Instead I forced myself to take a deep slow calming breath. I wasn't the type to run from my problems and I didn't like the idea of being the type of person to turn away from a situation just because it was uncomfortable. With a fake smile I nodded to Yao. _"Sure. I'll do that."  
_  
He got off on the fourth floor and I stayed as the elevator rose to the sixth and final floor. When it dinged that we had arrived I steeled myself as the doors opened. On the other side of the elevator there was a wide hallway with patterned marble flooring that led to a set of double doors. The whole thing reminded me more of a hotel hallway than that of an apartment building.

I walked up to the large set of double doors, my body feeling a bit like it was on autopilot while I did it. The two doors stood large, daunting, intimidating. I closed my eyes and took another deep breath before straightening my spine and knocking sharply on the door three times.

"Come in," came a gruff and booming voice from somewhere inside. After a moment's hesitation I gripped the fancy ornate handle and did just that.

+++ **The Art of War** +++

I couldn't help but feel a bit like a young schoolgirl as I walked in there, wearing my backpack and a pair of converse shoes. My first impression of the place was that it looked a lot more like one of those swanky presidential suites I'd seen in movies than someone's apartment. Everything I could immediately see looked comfortable and expensive. As I walked a little further into the apartment and turned a corner I got my first look at the real meat of the place. The living room-slash-living area was absolutely massive, with enough space on expensive looking leather couches to sit a dozen people. Off to the side I could see a gleaming modern kitchen done in stainless steel and black marble. Dominating the living room was the biggest flat screen TV I had ever seen which was currently turned on to a soccer game.

Sitting on one of the couches with his back turned to me was a man in a white T-shirt with the broadest set of shoulders I had ever seen. As soon as I had cleared the corner he began to stand up in slow and unhurried pace. When he turned to look at me I froze, staring at the same exact pair of perpetually intense eyes I remembered from my childhood. He studied me for a moment before walking over to me in a smooth confident stride, a stride I'd come to recognize as belonging to someone who had trained how to fight and knew how to take care of themselves.

I just stood there until he stopped right in front of me. He was nearly seven feet tall and absolutely towered over my average five foot seven frame. His expression was neutral as his black eyes scanned me over from head to toe. I did my best to put up my own neutral expression, unsure of what emotions would be appropriate or even welcome in this case. We were practically strangers to each other and I couldn't forget that this man was also Lung, gang leader and cape that even other capes were afraid to cross.

 _"Katsuko-chan,"_ he said in Japanese by way of greeting. His voice was deep and somehow echoed from his massive chest.

I resisted the urge to shift from foot to foot or otherwise fidget as I looked up to him. _"Father."  
_  
We were quiet for a long moment before he spoke up again. _"How was your trip?"  
_  
I bit my lip and nodded slightly. _"Good. Didn't have any problems or anything."  
_  
There was another long silence as I struggled to come up with something to say. Lung - dad - took the initiative by turning and walking back towards the couches. _"Come. Let's sit."  
_  
I followed him wordlessly feeling a little bit like I was tip toeing though broken glass. Or a minefield. He sat on the edge of one of the couches and I moved to sit on the edge of another, facing him. Glancing at the TV as I sat down my mind finally came up with something to say.

 _"I didn't know you liked soccer,"_ I said.

 _"I don't,"_ was his terse reply.

I licked my lips. _"Then why do you have it on?"  
_  
My dad, Kenta - should I call him Kenta? - shrugged his massive shoulders. _"Nothing else was on."  
_  
There was another silence before father cleared his throat. _"We need to talk about a few things Ketsuko-chan,"_ he said, giving me a significant look to make me understand this conversation was going to be serious.

I swallowed, doing my best to hide my trepidation. _"Fine."_

 _"First of all, we should talk about school. I won't make you finish high school. It would be best if you did but I won't force the issue."  
_  
I blinked and sort of had to take a moment with that. The Fukunagas whom I had been living with for the last five years would never in a million years have considered letting me not finish high school. In fact they had always been pretty strict about me getting good grades. The idea of not going to school was... odd. I mean what else was I going to do?

 _"I've been going to school since the first grade but none of that will mean anything if I don't get a high school diploma,"_ I said with a shrug, _"I've only got a year and a half left. I want to finish school."  
_  
My father, Kenta - I was really going to have to decide what I was going to call him in my head - just gave a small nod at that. Frustratingly nothing in his expression told me whether he approved or disapproved of my decision. _"That's fine. I'll give you Yao's number later, call him and have him set it up for you. Now the next order of business. You need to be introduced to the gang. Tomorrow evening I set up a little demonstration for you to show off your powers in front of some of the more influential men in my organization. You need to impress them, make sure they know who you are. It's extremely important to make everyone know not to fuck with you."  
_  
I was a little startled to hear him curse, since the Fukunagas had been nice conservative older couple who had probably never let a profanity escape their lips at any time during this millennium. The rest of what my father had said however was much more disturbing.

With a frown I said, _"I'm not sure I like this. I don't really know the details of what you do other than a lot of it is... less than legal. I came because I wanted to and because I didn't have a lot of choice but that doesn't automatically mean I want to join the Azn Bad Boys."  
_  
Kenta - let's go with Kenta for now - grunted at that, somehow making it sound derisive. _"There really is no other choice. You're a cape now, and one with Brute powers to boot. I won't accept my own daughter doing anything else with them in this town other than helping me and my organization."  
_  
I held back my knee jerk reaction at saying something bratty and rebellious at him for just... _assuming_ he could just force me to join his little gang. Instead I parsed what he said and tried to speak reasonably. _"What does it matter that I have powers, Brute powers or not? I could just... not use my powers. Live a normal life. I'd sort of assumed you'd want that for me."  
_  
Kenta shook his head. _"I've been around a lot of capes Katsuko. Saints and sinners, capes of every stripe, in peaceful cities or in hell. I've never met a cape who could stop themselves from using their powers. Maybe if you were a Thinker you could hide away and pretend to be normal but you're a Brute. Using your powers means getting into fights and pounding things with your fists. Capes all have a stupid urge to put themselves in dangerous situations. When the time comes there are only so many options. For obvious reasons you can't join the Protectorate and I won't allow you to fly solo either as a hero or a criminal. That is simply too dangerous. That just leaves working for me unless you felt like trying your luck with the Nazis or the junkies."_ Obviously the last two weren't really an option.

I looked away, biting my lip. _"I could probably control it,"_ I said, but my protest sounded weak even to my own ears.

 _"No. You couldn't."  
_  
Even though I really hated to admit it, dad had a point. Even through the whirlwind of getting my powers, coming home in bloody rags, frantic phone calls to Brockton Bay, the Tampa Bay Protectorate looking for a 'black armored cape', packing up my life and moving out of state... I'd still felt a burning need to experiment with my powers. I had done so even when I had a thousand other things distracting me and when going out to see just how strong I really was had been a monumentally stupid thing to do when people had been looking for me. What Kenta had said about being unable to stop myself from using my powers had a ring of truth to it. I had to believe my own father wouldn't put my life in danger and make me enter a life of crime if he didn't think it was necessary.

I sighed. In one way or another it seemed that I was going to be part of the Azn Bad Boys. Hopefully we could just keep my involvement to a minimum. Being a known felon would probably hurt my chances of getting a scholarship to get into a good college, just a bit. This sudden move was probably already going to play havoc with my transcripts.

 _"Fine,"_ I said trying not to sound petulant, _"If you think it's important I'll go. It's also good to have the option of having some way to use my powers, I guess."_ Though how that would work exactly I had no idea.

 _"Good,"_ said Kenta with a tone of finality to it. _"I'll control this entire city eventually. If you hadn't triggered I would have waited until then to send for you when it was safer. As it stands this town is very dangerous. Listen to me and follow my lead. Until you know the full extent of your powers you don't want to take any risks."_

I nodded absently at that. I didn't very well feel like I could have just said 'no', especially with how famous this city was for all it's cape violence. _"Yes father,"_ I said obediently. I also chose not to think about how he would have 'sent for me' eventually, especially given that if he ever did completely take over the Brockton Bay underworld I would have definitely been an adult by then.

Kenta nodded at that. Even though his face was stoic and hard to read I wanted to think that he was at least somewhat pleased with me for going along with what he wanted. _"Be ready to go at eight in the evening tomorrow,"_ Kenta said. _"Since I'm assuming you don't have a mask I'll have one for you. Only a very few, very trusted people in the organization are allowed to know the civilian identities of our capes. Don't forget that. Yao knows everything so don't be afraid to let him know if you need anything."_

 _"Yes father."_ The mask thing made sense. It occurred to me that I would have to start thinking of a cape name.

 _"I'm going to be busy for the rest of the evening,"_ Kenta said. My eyes widened a bit as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a thick roll of hundred dollar bills. He threw it at me and I had to fumble to catch it. _"That's two grand. Use it to buy whatever you need. If you need anymore ask me or Yao."  
_  
I stared at the roll of bills in my hands held together by a rubber band. I'd never held that much cash in my life. Not even close. It was strange and felt kind of... dirty, since I vaguely knew the money came from less-than-legal activities. Still I made the effort to look up and give the man a small grateful smile. _"I don't really need this much. This should last me for a really long time. Thanks... dad."  
_  
He just grunted at that, but this time I'm pretty sure he was actually at least a little bit pleased. _"That's just pocket change, don't be afraid to ask for more. Get yourself situated. We'll arrange to have dinner sometime soon."  
_  
It seemed a bit odd that we'd have to schedule something like that. I gave him another small, if hesitant, smile. _"That would be nice."  
_  
Kenta nodded and stood up. _"It's better that you're here Katsuko. Now get out of here. I've got a lot of work to do."_


	2. Chapter 2

**The Art of War (Worm AU)**

 **==========  
Chapter 2**

  
"Hence the saying: If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle. "

 _-Sun Tzu, The Art of War, Chapter 3, Verse 18._

  
 **October 9, 2010  
**  
Loud, insistent knocking on the front door of my new apartment jerked me awake from the blissful sleep I was having. For a moment I was scared and disoriented as I had no idea where I was or what the hell was going on. Then it slowly all came back to me: moving to Brockton Bay, living alone for the first time in a new apartment, my dad... yeah it was too much to deal with right then without a few cups of hot tea to help me wake up. I laid my head back down on one of the extremely comfortable pillows and felt my eyes start to drift closed again when the obnoxious loud knocking came from the front door yet again, waking me up even further.

Sighing in frustration and annoyance I looked at the cheap sports watch on my wrist. _8:17 AM._ Too damn early. Maybe if I just ignored them they would just go away?

After the third round of loud knocking I gave up and less than gracefully dragged myself out of bed. I'd gone to bed in just an oversized T-shirt and panties - not exactly dressed for receiving guests - but in that moment I was too groggy and annoyed to care. Stumbling out of the bedroom I managed to half-grope, half-drag myself to the front door. Unlocking the heavy duty locks I opened the door just enough to see who was on the other side.

It was that same guy from yesterday standing there with an amused and apologetic look on his face. It took me moment to remember his name. "Yao Lang," I said, my voice hoarse from sleep, "I swear if you don't have a good reason for being here this early I'm going to-... well I can't think of any good threats right now. But it will be horrible and you will fear me for ages."

He grinned at that. Guy actually had a pretty nice smile. "Actually I do have a reason for being here. The delivery truck with the rest of your stuff they shipped from Tampa is downstairs. I wanted to get your approval and not surprise you with a bunch of guys barging into your apartment while you were still asleep."

It took a moment for my sleep addled brain to fully register what he said. "Oh. My stuff. Yeah that's fine," I said, "you can tell them to come up or whatever. I'll just throw something on."

"Can do. We'll be up in about five minutes," he said with another nice smile before heading off. Damn. He wasn't bad looking at all. If he wasn't a gangster and at least thirty years old there might have been something there.

Closing the door I made my way back to the bedroom I had slept in the night before. Fishing around my suitcase which I hadn't unpacked yet I pulled out a bra and a pair of shorts. After quickly putting them on I went into the spacious bathroom and splashed cold water on my face. By the time the knock came on the front door I was feeling awake enough to at least partially function.

I let the men at the door in, two Asian men in brown UPS uniforms carrying boxes, followed by Yao Lang right behind. This time I got a better look at my father's right hand man-slash-assistant. He was dressed in a casual designer sports coat, looking a lot more like someone going to small business meeting than someone who worked for a street gang. Yao wasn't very tall, maybe only an inch taller than me, and seemed to somehow project an aura that said "trust me, I'm a nice guy." The only thing that ruined the image for me was catching a glimpse of the shoulder holster he wore under his jacket... that and the gaudy, god awful gold ring he wore on his pinky.

I could partially forgive him the awful ring however when he held up what he was carrying in his hands: A cup tray holder with what looked like coffee and a bag that looked like it had come from a doughnut shop.

"Just a little thing to say 'I'm sorry' for waking you up so early," he said, seemingly amused as my eyes insta-locked on the cup holder in his hands. "We need to talk about a few things. Do you mind if we sit in the kitchen while these guys finish up?"

"Sure. Come in," I said a little awkwardly, motioning towards the kitchen. The kitchen was pretty big, with shiny brand new appliances that looked top of the line. There was a small breakfast nook with three chairs near a large window. Still feeling a bit out of place in my new apartment I led the way and sat down, Yao taking a seat across from me.

I didn't waste any time in taking a tall cup of coffee, opening it and dumping as much cream and sugar into it as I could get my hands on. Yao raised a surprised eyebrow at that.

"Would you like a little coffee with your cream and sugar?" he asked jokingly.

"I hate coffee. This is the only way it's tolerable, well this or ice coffee. I appreciate the gesture but next time pick me up some tea instead?"

He just nodded at that. "If you hate coffee then why are you drinking it?"

"Caffeine is a hell of a drug."

We sat in silence for a couple of minutes, me drinking my horrible coffee and trying not to be too much of a pig as I ate a couple of doughnuts. The movers made a few trips bringing up a total of six boxes of varying size. Six boxes and two suitcases had brought all my worldly possessions from Tampa. Everything was still sinking in. All in all I was surprised by how remarkably calm I was about the whole thing. Wouldn't most girls feel intimidated by sitting across from a strange man, a gangster, with a gun? For some reason staring across the table at Yao drinking his coffee I couldn't bring myself to feel threatened even if I tried.

I was probably just numb or something from all the massive changes that had gone on in the last week. Yeah, that was probably it. Maybe in a few more days the shock would pass and I would have a good and proper freak out.

When the last of the movers had left Yao's friendly expression became more serious and business-like. _"There are a couple of things I need to talk to you about Shiba-san,"_ began Yao in Japanese, _"but I think we should start with some basic safety precautions."_

"You should stick to English. It's way better than your Japanese," I said teasingly as I started to nibble on my third doughnut.

 _"If I don't practice then how will I get better?"  
_  
Fair point. _"Fine,"_ I said to him in the same language he was using, _"what did you want to talk about?"_

 _"Just now, this morning,"_ Yao began, his voice and expression suddenly turning very serious, _"you just opened your front door without knowing it was me on the other side. You didn't use the peep hole to see who was there or even use the security chain, flimsy as those things are. The security in this building is good but it is no Fort Knox. Your father has enemies. You may be a cape but that doesn't mean you're invincible. With respect, you need to start being more security conscious Shiba-san."  
_  
I bit my lip as I thought about that. The Fukunagas had lived in a nice neighborhood, not rich but about as safe and quiet as they came. I wasn't used to having to worry about people that might come to my door to try to... hurt me or kill me or whatever.

 _"I'd assumed that no one knew about this building?"_

 _"They don't,"_ said Yao, _"but that could change. This is a very dangerous town Shiba-san. I don't want to unduly alarm you, but you need to be aware of that even when you are in this building. Gang warfare is brutal and doesn't pull many punches."_

 _"There's a gang war going on?"_ I asked, suddenly alarmed. Images of drive by shootings and police in riot gear filled my mind.

Yao smiled a bit bitterly. _"There's always a low level war going on in this town Shiba-san. There's really no helping it. Sooner or later your father will drive out or kill all the cocksucking Nazi's and the junkies, but until then there will always be some low level violence that will occasionally flare up into something bigger from time to time."  
_  
And just like that the conversation started to make me uncomfortable, and that was only partially due to the well dressed handsome man in front of me suddenly throwing out the word 'cocksucking'. I really didn't want to think about my father duking it out with other capes on the street. Sadly I was fairly sure I would find out way more about all that stuff than I really wanted to before too long. Taking another sip from my barely tolerable coffee I made to steer the conversation elsewhere.

 _"Point made Yao-san. This is different from what I'm used to, but I'll endeavor to be more cautious about safety in the future,"_ I said. I actually meant it too. Not that I knew exactly what that meant. Other than not opening the door to strangers, did I suddenly start looking over my shoulder at random every five minutes? Maybe something to ask about later.

Yao nodded at that before flashing that handsome smile of his again. _"Good. Glad you understand, all of us need to take precautions. On a tangentially related note I've got something for you,"_ he said before reaching into his pocket and putting something on the table in front of me. It was a smartphone, one of the newer super expensive models unless I missed my guess. A little reverently I reached over and picked it up.

 _"It's got your father's number and my number programmed in already. Your father asked me to tell you to keep it on you at all times. Occasionally there are emergencies and we may need to get in contact with you right away. Also feel free call me anytime in case you need anything. I might be busy and not be able to answer right away but I'll always get back to you as soon as I can."  
_  
I noticed he didn't say 'you can call your father anytime'. I probably shouldn't try to call him unless it was really important. I didn't think he'd be amused if I wasted his time. That realization stung somewhat. Shouldn't parents be happy to hear from their children?

 _"Cool,"_ I said with a fake smile. I took the phone and slipped it into the pocket of my shorts, resolving to play around with it later. _"Anything else?"_

 _"Just one thing. Your father mentioned you wanted to enroll in school again. We talked it over and the best option right now seems to be Winslow. A lot of kids who are our people and a bunch more who are sympathetic to us go there so that should add an extra layer of safety should you need it. The paperwork has all been taken care of. You should be able to start on Monday."  
_  
I raised an eyebrow at that. _"Wow. You work fast."_ I was honestly a little bit impressed.

Yao smiled smugly as he took a sip from his coffee. _"I'm the best at what I do. And when I'm not, I delegate,"_ he said with a grin.

I sensed that our meeting was wrapping up and that Yao probably had to go soon to do... whatever it was he did during the day. There was one thing I wanted to do that day and, well, he did say he was there to help with whatever I needed right?

 _"Say, Yao-san,"_ I began _, "I want to get around to a few stores today. Get groceries, maybe check out the local mall, that kind of stuff. Could you recommend a few places? And also, what's the best way to get around? Is it safe to take the bus or should I take a taxi?"_ Taxis were expensive but I figured if two grand was 'pocket change' for these guys then I could afford to spend a hundred bucks riding around in one for the day.

The man tapped his chin as he seemed to think about it. _"Better to play it safe. I'll get one of the guys to drive you around. If it's okay with you I'll get one of them to swing around with a car in a couple of hours. They don't have access to the building so you'll have to go downstairs to meet them."  
_  
For some reason the suggestion shocked me. _"A driver?"_ I asked incredulously, _"That's... really not necessary. I don't want to be a bother."  
_  
Yao waved my concerns off. _"It's no bother really. These guys work for us. A lot of these guys get a lot of idle time, it's good to make them earn their paycheck. They're trustworthy too for the most part."_

 _"I don't know Yao-san,"_ I said dubiously, _"I'm not sure I want to be saddled with a stranger all day."_

 _"It's for the best. You don't want to accidentally wander into the wrong part of town in this city. Plus they can show you all the best spots,"_ said Yao. When he saw I really wasn't buying his argument his tone got a little softer. _"It's what your father would want. I know he'd feel better if you had someone around to make sure you didn't accidentally wander into Empire or Merchant territory."  
_  
I stared at him incredulously. _You manipulative little son of a bitch._

 _"Fine,"_ I said, feeling a little pissed off. _"But don't think you can use that 'it's what your father would want' line to get me to agree to whatever crap you want me to do in the future."  
_  
He smiled a little smugly, apparently unconcerned. _"That's fine,"_ he said, standing up and buttoning his sports coat. _"So should I send my man to pick you up in two hours?"  
_  
I paused a moment to consider that. _"Make it three,"_ I said, my tone resigned and just a _little_ petulant as I stuffed the last of that third doughnut into my mouth.

 _"As you wish Shiba-san. Now I really must get going. Have a pleasant day and remember, if you have any problems I'm just a phone call away."_

-The Art of War- 

After Yao left I decided to take a better look at my apartment which I hadn't really done the night before. It was situated in a corner of the building meaning I had windows along two walls which let in a great deal of light during the day. A glass door let out to a surprisingly spacious and furnished terrace. The living room had a couch and a two person love seat both in light brown... I knew they were expensive as hell since I recognized the brand. The furniture housing the huge TV and entertainment system reached almost to the ceiling and was made of light colored wood. It was a surprisingly bright and cheerful place and I doubted Yao had been the one to pick everything out. Probably one of those things he had delegated.

There was one bathroom with a large bathtub and one of the bedrooms in the apartment was empty. However the bedroom I had slept in the night before was the real treat. It was large room dominated by a queen sized bed with bunched up red comforter and sheets from the night before. All the furniture in the bedroom was heavy and solid and done in a rich dark mahogany. There were thick red curtains that kept out most of the morning light and gave the room a kind of intimate feel. Overall not what I would have probably chosen myself but I couldn't deny whatever decorator had been hired had done a really nice job. That and the bed and sheets were the most comfortable things I had ever slept on in my life.

Overall I was... _extremely_ happy with, and still a little bit in shock with how nice my new apartment was. However I still wasn't feeling exactly comfortable with my overall situation. There was still a lot of uncertainty about everything and I wasn't a big fan of not knowing where I stood... you can ask a couple of my exes and I'm sure they'd tell you in detail. Hopefully some of my outstanding questions would get answered tonight when father wanted me to 'show off my powers' to his men.

With my head full of uncertainty I took a long shower and then dressed casually and conservatively in a polo shirt and jeans. Dressing even a little provocatively seemed like a bad idea even if I knew I could punch my 'escort' through a wall if he got any ideas. Then I spent the next couple of hours unpacking everything and putting it exactly where I wanted it. One thing I was going to need to buy very soon was a bookshelf. Two and a half of the six boxes the UPS guys had delivered had been filled with books. They were most precious possessions and for now I didn't have anywhere to put them.

I had just finished doing what I could, my apartment feeling just a little bit more 'me', when the time came and I had to go downstairs to meet the guy. Taking the satchel that I used as a purse I stuck in my wallet, my new phone and the cash I'd gotten the day before and headed out the door. It turned out that on every floor there were two elevators, one that led to the lobby and one that went directly into the garage. I took the lobby one said hello to the huge Asian man at the security desk on the first floor before stepping outside the building. Looking around I quickly spotted an Asian guy in his early twenties leaning against a grey Lincoln town car. It shouldn't have been a surprise that he was fully decked out in green and red but it still caught me off guard. Hoping this wouldn't somehow go horribly wrong I walked up to him with as much confidence as I could muster.

"Hey. You my ride?" I asked him, trying not to show how uncomfortable I was about the whole thing.

The guy turned to look at me and I was kind of shocked he didn't quickly check me out like ninety-nine percent of guys do when they meet a new girl. Instead he looked nervous even though he tried to hide it and he made _very_ sure to keep his eyes squarely on my face. "Yes ma'am. I supposed to take you wherever you want to go and keep any of the riffraff from bothering you," he said in extremely accented English, so much so that I had a bit of a hard time understanding him.

 _Ma'am? What the hell?_ Before I could think to say anything he moved quickly and opened the door to the back seat, looking stoic and uneasy as he held the door open for me. Giving him a queer look I gripped my satchel and hesitantly climbed into the back seat.

After he got in the driver seat and started driving I tried to start a conversation with him. It turned out his name was Joe, and he was a Vietnamese immigrant. Kind of sucked for me since aside from English I only spoke Japanese and some passable Mandarin I had learned in school and from a nanny I'd had when I was a kid. Other than that though I didn't get a whole lot out of him. His English was pretty bad and any question I asked would only get me one or two word answers. It didn't help that it soon became obvious that the guy was terrified of saying or doing the wrong thing. I don't know what Yao had told him or why he'd picked him but it quickly became clear that Joe was going to make a really crappy tour guide.

I asked him to take me to a nice mall and it turned out the only nice malls were way, way out in the suburbs. When we got there Joe rushed out to open the door for me which was strange and the proceeded to follow along a couple of steps behind me and a bit off to the side. It was kind of amusing and disturbing to have this guy I'd never met before following me around and acting like a bodyguard. On the bright side at least I wasn't going to have to worry about him hitting on me all day long.

I wasn't really looking for anything specific in the mall, I just wanted to browse and maybe pick up some pots and pans and the like for the kitchen. Even though it made me feel a little bit bad for the most part I forgot that Joe was with me there at all. He was a silent shadow and didn't seem all that interested in talking.

However as I realized a bit later I was probably the only person in the mall who ignored his presence. I noticed that when people saw the colors he was wearing they tended to give him a wide berth while avoiding his gaze. A few braver ones would look at him with looks distaste or disgust on their faces. Perhaps most telling were the big burly mall security guys that seemed to just pop up wherever we were giving Joe decidedly unfriendly looks. Even this far out from their normal places of operation it seemed that the Azn Bad Boys had a reputation.

I wasn't sure what to think of that. This was my father's gang that people seemed to be genuinely afraid of. Were they really that bad? I intellectually knew that as a street gang the Azn Bad Boys were far from saints. However vaguely knowing they probably sold drugs and ran extortion rackets was a far cry from seeing people unwilling to meet the eye of a member of the ABB. Feeling disturbed I pushed it to the back of my mind as something to consider later.

After browsing around for a while I wandered into an electronics store, Joe following behind me like a faithful puppy. The owner gave me a small smile before he saw Joe come in behind me at which point he gave the both of us a dirty look. I ignored him and looked around, thinking I might get a case for my new smartphone. That's when something playing on one of the televisions in the store caught my attention.

 _"In other news, our very own Bockton Bay Wards will be taking a tour of all the local public middle schools in the area starting next week. Their stated goal is to promote civic responsibility and encourage our youth to stay out of gangs, something that has remained a considerable problem here in the Bay for decades. Here to talk about this new initiative is Aegis, the recently promoted leader of the Wards. Aegis thank you for being with us today."_

 _"It's a pleasure to be here Brenda."  
_  
I stopped and paid full attention to the interview. Even though they were amazing I'd never been all that interested in capes before I triggered even with the added fact that I'd known for a long time that my own father was a cape. It just had never seemed very relevant for me. However now that I was a Parahuman I suddenly found myself a lot more interested. Standing next to the reporter on television was Aegis, a well built teenage guy a little taller than average. He wore a rust-red costume with silver-white trim and a matching helmet. There was a fancy shield emblem on his chest and I remembered that some capes had their own personal logos. Overall he looked very impressive and heroic.

The interview was pretty predictable as such things went, and I only flinched once when they lumped the ABB together in with the Empire 88 (who I knew were a neo-Nazi gang) and the Merchants (who I didn't know much about but were apparently known as 'the junkies'). However seeing Aegis on television got me thinking. Was I going to end up fighting him one day? The idea troubled me but strangely it didn't scare me. In fact the idea of taking on the whole Brockton Bay Protectorate didn't seem all that scary, except for the fact that it would be a bad idea and I would certainly lose. I didn't really want to fight heroes, but if Lung was so certain that sooner or later I was going to have to go out there and use my powers anyway...

It occurred to me I didn't know anything about the capes in this town. Actually I didn't even know about the other capes in the ABB which was... kind of a gigantic oversight really. I resolved to get online and spend a lot of time finding out about the capes in Brockton Bay as soon as feasibly possible. A lot of my favorite ancient texts, including The Art of War, all said the same thing: knowing your enemy was of paramount importance if you wanted to win.

I left the store after buying a case and charger for my new phone. Sometime later I found myself in a huge department store that had already started selling a few Christmas themed things even though it was only the beginning of October. The only reason that caught my attention was because of something that drew my eye: a thick Christmas scarf done in red and green. The green wasn't _quite_ ABB green, that green was closer to lime green rather than the dark pine green associated with Christmas. Still as I held the scarf in my fingers I agonized about whether or not to buy it. What would it say if I did? Would I wear it? Did I want to be even tangentially associated with the ABB any more than I had to? Would it please my father if he saw me wearing red and green?

In the end I bought the scarf, unsure if I would end up wearing it even if _technically_ it wasn't quite the proper ABB colors. It was October in New England and I needed to buy a few warm things. At least that was the flimsy excuse I told myself as I carried my new purchase out of the store, somehow the plastic bag feeling heavy on my arm.

By the time we left the mall I was carrying so many bags I was starting to worry I'd out myself as a Brute right then and there. It was mostly just kitchen stuff though; I'd never been much of a shopaholic but I did enjoy cooking. And tea. No sane person should go too long without tea.

The rest of the afternoon went without much incident. Joe drove me to a large grocery store out in the suburbs and after that I asked him to take me home. I had so much crap the guard at the security desk had to help me carry it all to keep up appearances - I would have asked Joe but apparently he wasn't authorized to enter the building. I thanked Joe for driving me around but frankly I think he was just glad to be rid of me. Not in a mean way but I'd gotten the impression someone had put the fear of God into him regarding me. That had simultaneously been very strange and pretty damn funny.

-

=========  
Author's Notes

Not much happened this chapter though I hope it was still an enjoyable read. I ask for your patience since I'm going to experiment with writing shorter chapters. On the plus side this means more frequent updates. On the downside it means that until I learn how to properly pace a story with shorter chapters there will inevitably be some without much action in them. Hopefully the trade off will be worth it.


	3. Chapter 3

**The Art of War (Worm AU)**

 **==========  
Chapter 3  
==========**

"Men honor what lies within the sphere of their knowledge, but do not realize how dependent they are on what lies beyond it."

 _-Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works._

 **October 9, 2010  
**  
After I'd gotten home and put everything away I still had a few hours before the time Lung had told me I needed to be ready. Honestly I was nervous about what was coming tonight. I wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea of having to show off and make a good impression on a bunch of gangsters so I can 'make everyone know not to fuck with me'. Dad's words, not mine. It said something that Lung seemed to think his own men needed to be intimidated into not trying anything with me. What if I screwed this up? I wasn't exactly very used to using my powers yet. Would my father get mad at me? Be disappointed? Would he ignore me and shun me if I didn't perform up to his standards?

On the other hand I couldn't deny part of me was excited. Not about meeting a bunch of creeps, but about getting to use my powers. It had been about three days since I had last used my powers and it had already started to make me antsy, like an itch under my skin that I just couldn't scratch. The feeling wasn't something I couldn't ignore but it was still there. My conversation with Lung about capes being unable to stop themselves from using their powers came to mind. In my limited experience I could definitely say the idea of ignoring my powers was profoundly unappealing. Whatever the case may be I was going to use this opportunity to cut loose and get the most out of using my powers as I could.

Still, that being said I still had about three hours left to burn. Remembering that I'd resolved to look up the capes living in Brockton Bay I decided to spend some time doing research. Since I didn't have a computer (yet at least) my shiny new smartphone came in handy with it's built in internet connection.

Two hours later I was frowning in worry as I stared at the glowing screen of my smartphone. The line up of capes in Brockton Bay was way, _way_ bigger than I had imagined. Between the Protectorate, Wards, New Wave, independents, and the various gangs there were at least fifty active capes in the city. Most troubling was that my father's main rivals, the Empire 88, had somewhere around twenty capes according to all the various message boards I had been able to find. _That_ was the gang he needed to crush in order to take over the Brockton Bay underworld? It seemed almost suicidal to go directly against a force that large.

Never mind what I found out about the ABB capes. In fact my father only had one other cape on his side: Oni Lee, a teleporter who according to a brief scan of the commentary talking about him was a nasty piece of work. I bit my lip as my chest filled with worry. Why didn't my father have more capes on his side? It didn't seem to make sense. Even the Merchants, who were by all reports nothing more than drug pushers who took too much of their own product, had more capes on their side than the ABB did. Hell if I wanted to get pessimistic the ABB had as many capes on their side as those two idiot video game dork capes I'd read about did.

I'd saved the best for last so to speak and clicked to read the Wiki-style PHO page that talked about my father. I'd known he was something of a badass, and I'd known basically what his powers did, but I had always avoided looking up information about Lung. I hadn't wanted the few positive memories I'd had of him to be marred by reading accounts of all the crimes he was accused of. However reading about his history as a cape and the things he had been able to do made my jaw drop.

By himself he was considered a credible threat the whole Empire 88, even with the twenty odd capes on their roster? He'd once taken on an entire Protectorate team by himself and _won_? When his power 'ramped up' enough he could grow wings and _fly_? The final thing I read after that was the most mind boggling of all.

I'd been six years old and living in Japan when Leviathan hit. My mother died in that attack and I'd later learned that my father had arranged for me to be smuggled to America and placed in the care of a Japanese couple who he trusted. What I hadn't known was that my father had fought that hateful, horrible creature. If the PHO was to be believed he fought that thing to a standstill single handedly. I sort of slumped backwards on my couch, feeling stunned. My father was strong enough to go toe to toe on even footing with an _Endbringer_? It seemed too big, too incomprehensible to believe. Not even Eidolon could solo one of those nightmares. Suddenly two capes standing against the Empire's twenty-plus didn't seem quite so crazy anymore. How _wasn't_ he in charge of Brockton Bay yet? Too bad he hadn't managed to kill Leviathan though I mostly just felt glad he had escaped from that with his life.

Reading further I figured out that he was considerably weaker and more vulnerable at the start of a fight, and that he slowly grew more and more powerful the more time passed. That sounded familiar. Though I didn't have a lot of experience with my powers yet I was fairly certain that my own powers worked the same way. Was there some connection there? Was the fact that he was my father influence the kind of power I ended up getting?

In the end I came to the conclusion that Lung wasn't really as invincible as he seemed. A surprise attack with overwhelming force was a real credible danger since it would deny him time to ramp up. It was morbid to think about things that could kill my father but I'd always had a good imagination. A car bomb? A half dozen Empire capes jumping him and immediately going for the use of deadly force? Didn't those guys have a cape who could learn any skill or something like that? Would something like a high caliber rifle from a few blocks away be enough to kill Lung for good if it hit him in the heart or in the head? Suddenly Yao harping on me about security seemed a lot more immediate and relevant.

I'd just maybe gotten a chance to get my father back into my life and I didn't want to lose him. I looked at the time on my phone and sighed. I needed to start getting ready. After two hours of research I felt like I'd barely started to scratch the surface of the situation in Brockton Bay. Just learning the powers of all the capes and being able to recognize them on sight was going to take a while. For my own personal peace of mind I needed to make understanding the cape scene in this town a top priority.

I took a shower and having no idea what to wear I settled for a button up shirt and jeans. I'd been debating whether or not to wear makeup when a loud knocking came on the front door. I looked at my watch. That was fifteen minutes early. Biting my lip I went to the front door.

Looking through the peephole all I saw was a massive chest. Huh. Well unless there were some other seven foot tall men built like tanks in the building that was probably my father. With my stomach doing a few flips I undid the heavy locks and opened the door.

It was him standing there, looking as tall and imposing as ever. However his outfit caught me by surprise. He was dressed in what looked like old and well worn gym clothes. In his hand he carried an oversized gym bag. I wasn't sure what I was expecting but seeing him decked out like we were going for a workout wasn't what I'd had in mind.

 _"Katsuko-chan,"_ he said in Japanese in that deep, echoing voice of his by way of greeting.

 _"Father,"_ I replied, gingerly stepping out of the way. _"Did you want to come in?"_ Looking at him it was hard to imagine him going toe to toe with an Endbringer, no matter how much of an impressive person he was.

Kenta ignored my question, looking me up and down. _"You're not dressed right,"_ he said brusquely.

I bristled a little despite myself. _"Well, maybe that wouldn't have been a problem if_ someone _had told me more about what was going on tonight."  
_  
A ghost of a smile crossed his face before it settled back into the perpetually hard and intense expression he always wore. _"We don't have a lot of time to waste."  
_  
With that he barged passed me, the doorway barely large enough to hold the two of us. I just looked after him, puzzled, as he made a beeline straight for my new bedroom.

I followed him inside and was mortified to see him opening my underwear drawer. _"Wh- what do you think you're doing?!"_ I only sort-of shrieked, my face heating up something fierce with mortification. There were things in there I did _not_ want my father seeing.

When he saw what was in there he promptly shut that drawer and opened up another one. _"You need some disposable clothes and a set of clothes that will send a message,"_ he said as he quickly and efficiently began to rifle through all the clothes that I owned. I would have probably protested more if my brain wasn't locking up at how surreal the whole situation was. Instead I just crossed my arms and looked on with a frown, wondering if it was too soon in our relationship to hit him or tell him off for being an inconsiderate jerk. _He's never had to raise a kid before,_ a more reasonable part of my mind said. _Maybe he doesn't get what a gross violation of privacy this is._

 _"Here,"_ he said when he was done. He'd picked out a black long sleeved turtle neck, a pair of black slacks and a pair of mostly back hiking boots that I owned. I looked at the monochrome outfit a bit dubiously but I wasn't about to argue about something as trivial as what outfit I was going to wear. I had to trust that Kenta knew what was best in this situation.

 _"Should I put this on now?"_ I asked him.

 _"No,"_ he replied, giving me a look that made me feel like I'd just asked a really stupid question. _"Pack it all in a bag and change into some exercise clothes you don't mind getting ruined. I'll be waiting for you outside."  
_  
Five minutes later we were in the elevator going down to the garage, me dressed in an old white t-shirt and grey sweatpants, my backpack stuffed with the outfit Kenta had picked out for me slung on my back. The elevator ride was mercifully short as I still didn't know how to start a conversation with my father. Silently I followed him out of the elevator as I wondered what kind of car he owned. That question was answered when he used a remote to unlock a gigantic dark blue Ford Expedition that looked brand new.

"Nice car," I said as I moved around to the passenger seat. Kenta didn't deign to grace my comment with a reply, and for some reason that just made me feel all the more self conscious.

We got in and soon we were driving out of the underground garage, night having recently fallen in Brockton Bay. I fiddled with the strap of my backpack on my lap as I tried to come up with something to say. It shouldn't be this awkward to sit in a car with one of your parents should it? Thankfully Kenta interrupted my silent agonizing a minute later.

 _"Here,"_ he said, reaching for something next to his seat and throwing it at me underhanded. I caught it and it took me a moment to realize what it was. It was a mask. A noh mask depicting a woman to be exact, made of ceramic and just a little bit creepy looking.

 _"That's for the meeting. You don't want any of these guys knowing who you are."  
_  
I fingered the mask. It wasn't specially made, just a normal theater mask. Still it was the first thing other than money I'd received form my dad in a long time. _"Thanks,"_ I said softly, trying to put how much it meant getting a sort-of gift from him into my voice. _"I'll make sure to keep my face hidden."  
_  
He didn't reply, but at least the silence felt slightly less oppressive as we drove on to our destination.

I couldn't really tell where we were going. It was dark and I didn't know the town at all. Wherever we were it looked to be half filled with empty buildings and the other half didn't look like they could possibly have anything wholesome going on inside. Eventually we pulled up to a fairly large one story building next to what a faded sign assured me was a junkyard. Lung exited the SUV and I nervously followed him into the sketchy looking building.

The inside wasn't at all what I had expected. The building was an old boxing gym, half of it dedicated to a worn looking boxing ring and the other half filled with various weight machines and mats. The place looked like it was used regularly but right now it was completely empty and somewhat eerie. Empty that is except for the man leaning against the wall in the far corner of the room.

He was of average height, wearing a black bodysuit covered in bandoleers of knives and - were those actual _real_ grenades? - on his person. His outfit vaguely reminded me of those black clad pajama ninjas from popular culture. On his face was a red demonic mask of Asian persuasion, complete with pointed horns and a fanged ear-to-ear grin.

It wasn't hard to recognize who he was. _Oni Lee,_ Lung's lieutenant and the only other cape in the ABB, someone I had been researching less than an hour prior. My steps faltered a bit as I remembered a few snippets I'd read about his supposed brutality.

 _"Lee. Good. You're here,"_ said Lung in a gruff voice. Oni Lee just nodded slightly to him in greeting.

Turning to me he said, _"Put your stuff down Katsuko. We're going to test your powers before we go to the meeting. We need to know first hand just what you can do."  
_  
Somehow I expected that would make me more nervous. Instead I gave him a small grin, somehow feeling more confident around him now that I would be using my powers. _"That sounds good. To be honest I'm kind of anxious to see what I can do,"_ I said eyeing all the various weights and equipment all around us.

First was strength. While I knew I was strong while untransformed I didn't really have any numbers I could stick to that. Lung made me get on a weight bench so thick and massive it had to be custom built. It was a bit odd bench pressing in the silent gym, with Lung slowly increasing the weights as Oni Lee watched without saying a word, but it was pretty thrilling every time he would add another couple of 90lb plates to the bar. In the end I managed about fifteen hundred pounds, about three quarters of a ton. I was huffing and puffing by the end of it but you couldn't have wiped the huge grin off my face if you'd tried.

 _"Good,"_ was all Lung said as he set himself to pulling the plates back off the bar.

 _"Is that as much as you can do?"_ I asked, not able to contain my curiosity.

 _"No. I can do more,"_ said Lung, simple and to the point.

 _"That would only make you a Brute 2, or 3 at the most,"_ said Oni Lee for the first time from where he stood behind me. His voice surprised me, making me jump a little. His tone of voice caught my attention too... it was somehow strangely flat and devoid of affect in some way. Even though his voice was monotone though I definitely detected a hint of disapproval and dismissiveness in his tone.

For some reason that sort of pissed me off. Oni Lee might have a rep for being one scary mother but for some reason I wasn't feeling intimidated in the least. Turning my body to face him I gave him one of those smiles that said 'I'm pretending to be nice, but I'm actually pissed off/annoyed/irritated right now and have a mind to make you feel it along with me'.

 _"This is just me before I start changing Lee-kun. I promise you I'm a lot scarier than this mere human flesh might suggest,"_ I said to him in that overly cutesy way only girls from Japan ever seemed to have mastered.

Oni Lee didn't say anything or even twitch a muscle, but dad huffed in amusement so I counted that as a win.

 _"You power,"_ Lung said as he finished putting away the last of the weights, _"you said it seemed to get stronger the more damage you took?"  
_  
I looked away, feeling guilty as I remembered the horrible clusterfuck that I'd created when I triggered. _"Pretty much as far as I can figure. I think it might have also have something to do with stress or feeling like I was in danger. Something like that."_ A thought that had occurred to me earlier resurfaced in my mind. _"Is that how your power works father?"  
_  
He just nodded once before reaching into his pocket. He threw the object at me and I caught it without much trouble. _"A switchblade?"_ I asked, looking at the item in my hand.

 _"If you're anything like me you'll heal from anything. Use the knife to cut yourself. Let's see this transformation of yours."  
_  
I bit my lip before simply nodding. I hadn't tried doing something like this before but Lung seemed pretty certain it would work. For some reason the thought of cutting myself didn't seem nearly as distressing as it should. In fact I was far more disturbed by my lack of concern at cutting myself with a knife than at the actual cutting itself.

Still I was mostly - about 99% - certain that I would heal from anything I did. I pushed the button on the knife causing the blade to spring up and lock into place. Trying not to look like I was being squeamish I drove the tip of the blade into my wrist, pushing it in about an inch. Then without pausing to let the pain register I pulled and dragged the blade down my arm. The knife was surprisingly sharp and parted the meat of my arm with hardly any resistance.

It hurt but thankfully I could already feel the injury starting to heal. More importantly though I began to feel a certain _pressure_ under my skin, a pressure that let me know the experiment with the knife was working. With renewed vigor I stabbed deeper and dragged the knife all the way up to my elbow.

Something wanted to come up from under my skin and I let it. As I watched my arm started to grow black patches of shiny black material that looked vaguely like stone or like the shell of large bug. I could feel the same kind of transformation going on all over my body. It was starting to work, I just needed to hurt myself a little more.

Suddenly feeling a lot bolder I took the knife and started to stab repeatedly into my thigh. Yeah, it hurt. I won't lie, it hurt a _lot_. However there is something about the knowledge that you won't be permanently hurt that just makes pain a hell of a lot less scary, and therefore less debilitating. I also think maybe my powers did something to me to help me deal with intense pain. Regardless it was only three or four stabs later that I felt my powers reach the breaking point.

Something _surged_ and flowed outwards from underneath my skin. In moments I felt my entire body become covered in that same black shell-like material. It wasn't just that I was suddenly covered in some type of armor though. I could _feel_ the insides of my body changing into something fundamentally different from just regular bones and muscles. I was pretty sure I still had a skeleton but it all just felt so... _different_.

The world around me changed too. Everything I could see became dramatically sharper and clearer and my sense of hearing improved as well. I could clearly hear a car driving down the street outside when before I doubted I would have even noticed it. However what changed the most was my sense of smell. I took a slow inhale, taking in all the scents of the gym. Old sweat, metal, leather, the body odor of dozens of different men. It was all a little overwhelming and I was frankly surprised a great deal of it didn't disgust me. I deliberately took in the scent of my father; strong, masculine, and somehow smelling like burnt embers.

I looked at Kenta and Oni Lee, the former looking at me with an expression of faint interest and the latter with no visible reaction from where he was standing. Catching sight of a wall of mirrors on the other side of the gym I stood up and strode towards them with a purpose. I'd transformed twice before but I'd never gotten the chance to look at myself in a mirror.

My appearance gave me quite the shock. For one I no longer had eyes. Or a nose. Or ears. My face looked like I was wearing an organic helmet that hid all my features. How I could still see without eyes was a complete and utter mystery but somehow I could. The only distinguishing features on my face were three pairs of small pits in a vertical line down either side of my face. I got the impression that somehow I smelled through those though I couldn't tell you what gave me that idea. Turning my head I could also see a small depressed pit where my ears should have been. Maybe I used those to hear as well.

Looking at the rest of my body I looked like... some kind of slick, bio-organic type of armor done entirely in shiny black. Somehow I had grown several inches putting me close to six feet tall. Looking down at my hands I noticed that my fingertips had been replaced by positively wicked looking talons. Those puppies were definitely designed to cut and tear. I'd seen them before but it was completely different looking at them in the mirror and taking in the whole package.

Overall I looked slick, and dangerous, and really _really_ intimidating. If I'd met me in an alley a week ago like this I'd have probably collapsed from a heart attack. Even better, it was clear through my now way too-small clothes I was wearing that I was still female, though thankfully not in any over the top or indecent fashion. A little bit of vanity perhaps but I liked that a lot better than turning into some type of genderless creature that would get me mistaken for a guy.

 _"I could be a villain in a Super Sentai episode,"_ I muttered, remembering a TV series I'd seen as a kid in Japan. Hearing my own voice surprised me, never mind that I had no idea how I was speaking without a mouth. Aside from sounding a bit muffled there was also something else wrong with it. It sounded _really_ deep, _really_ scratchy and really... _masculine._

Huh. I had to admit, I wasn't a big fan of that.


	4. Chapter 4

**The Art of War (Worm AU)**

Chapter 4  
==========

"To enter the door and be shown the way, you must be orally taught."

- _Song of the Thirteen Postures, the Tai Chi Classics._

 **October 9, 2010**

Two hours later I was sitting in a small side room attached to the gym with a door that led out to the junkyard, the dark and much abused space lit only by a single sad lightbulb hanging overhead. Not that the light mattered a hell of a lot. As it turned out my night vision was extremely good when transformed... not that it seemed all that important when taking into account how much my other senses were enhanced naturally. I still hadn't had much of a chance to practice it but I was fairly certain I could navigate the dark extremely well with just my senses of hearing, smell and touch.

I fidgeted in the metal folding chair I was sitting in and idly scratched furrows in the cheap wooden table I was leaning on with the black talon my finger had become. It was a bit odd just sitting in a room in my transformed state when every instinct told me to be up and about and _doing_ something. Leaning against the wall in the far corner was Oni Lee who seemed perfectly content to pretend I didn't exist. To be honest I was curious about him but had no idea what to say. It's not like the two of us had a great deal in common. How would I even start a conversation?

 _Hey, what's it like to be a gangster best known for his explosive violence? Haha, get it? Because you blow up?_

I resolved to save that one for plan C.

Lung was on the other side of the junkyard "prepping" the lieutenants of the ABB – his lieutenants – for my grand entrance and reveal. I felt pretty confident I knew what I needed to do after I'd been coached on it for nearly an hour. In short: go big and flashy or go home. The more impressed they are with me (Kenta had used the word "scared" but I liked mine better) the more smoothly this will all go in the long run. Though this felt really out of my element I'd decided to trust Ken- my father. He certainly knew a lot more about dealing with career criminals than I did.

The only thing I was really worried about was the execution. Father's plan was... well. I'll be honest I wasn't entirely thrilled with it. If I didn't know any better I'd think this was all some elaborate way to get me killed.

But I did know better. I was either going to come out of this looking like a fool or looking like a total badass. I'd pray to Kwan Yin but I don't think she's really be supportive of this kind of stuff. Maybe a quick prayer to Hachiman that all of this goes well would be a better bet.

A buzzing from my spankin' new smartphone on the table next to me went off. The text message had only one word.

 _Ready_

"Showtime Lee," I said trying not to let the awkwardness I was feeling around him show. My voice came out extremely deep and distorted and even though I wasn't thrilled with it there was nothing I could really do about it. Without a word he pushed off the wall and followed me out.

Walking through the junkyard it was awkward knowing I didn't have any clothes on. In the interests of not ruining clothes more than necessary we'd agreed that I should strip when it became obvious my natural armor covered more than most girls wear to the mall nowdays. Still it was odd, if only because I could get a muted feeling of the wind on my "skin" as I walked and every few steps I'd glance down to make sure I wasn't really walking around naked.

I was pulled from my thoughts when we walked around a corner and we came to our destination. It was a large open-ish area, maybe half the size of a football field, with mountains of junked cars and other vehicles stacked on two sides and a few littered around here and there out in the open. All the way at the end as far back as they could be were five men, dressed in expensive looking clothes and all but one of them smoking cigarettes. From what I could see they ranged from their late twenties to their early fifties. Standing forward and apart from them was Lung dressed in a pair of jeans and a white T-shirt that strained against his massive chest. The five men further back were all Asian (of course) and were all looking at me with cautious and calculating expressions. I might be a good or bad thing that they didn't seem overly surprised by my appearance. It bothered me a bit really. I thought my armored form was rather intimidating.

I came to as top where we had previously arranged, in line with a junked yellow car relatively close to the line of men. "Close enough to scare them with the show" dad had said. I honestly thought maybe I was a little _too_ close but that wasn't really my call right now. Besides I was sure that Lung knew what he was doing.

I stood with my hands at my side, trying my best to look confident and intimidating. I breathed deep and my super enhanced sense of smell took in the men lined up in front of me. While still new at this I thought I could make out the different scents around me... a great deal of metal of course but also the men that had come to see me. There was apprehension there I thought, and some excitement, and some other things I couldn't quite identify. I made a note of what they smelled like. If I concentrated I thought I could remember their individual scents for the future.

"Gentlemen," said Lung, sweeping his arm towards me like he was showing me off to the world. "The newest member of the Azn Bad Boys."

I knew that was the signal but I was still surprised when Oni Lee suddenly appeared in front of me, crouched low, and stabbed at my stomach viciously with an eight inch combat knife.

Internally I winced a little even as I forced myself to remain completely stoic on the outside. The knife carved a line in my armor, no deeper than a tenth of an inch really, but I could still feel it enough to be uncomfortable. Oni Lee disappeared and another identical copy appeared next to the original stabbing his knife viciously at my throat with snake like speed. The blade glanced off the black armor covering my neck carving a shallower furrow than before.

Oni Lee made a show of it, teleporting flashily and stabbing me viciously while making sure to keep his body out of the way so the watching thugs could see. Almost instantly my armor had started hardening and by the fourth stab the knife wasn't even leaving a mark on my body. The furrows Oni Lee had at first left on my body healed in moments. If I'd still had a mouth I would have smiled. I could already feel my body getting heavier and stronger. As I had found out my mass and durability increased the longer a "confrontation" went on.

Next came the next phase in the plan. After the knife was completely ineffectual the demonstration would kick it up a notch. I wasn't afraid per se but this next part did make a little _concerned_.

Oni Lee stopped stabbing me and teleported some ten feet in front of me, producing what I had been told was a .45 caliber pistol in matte black and pointing it straight at me. He then teleported to the side by maybe a foot, leaving a clone who immediately started firing. The bullets struck me in abdomen – just in case – and left little divots in my armor that almost immediately started filling in.

The gunfire was _loud_ to my enhanced hearing and the overpowering smell of propellant hung thick in the air. Oni Lee was reported to be an ambush teleporter but in this instance he began teleporting rapidly until he had a firing line of four Oni Lee's shooting at me simultaneously at any one time. They cumbled into white dust quickly but still managed to fire off a surprising amount of bullets before they crumbled to ash.

By the time the first two magazines had hit me the bullets were glancing off my armor without leaving a scratch and I could _feel_ my mass and strength increasing further making me feel almost invincible. Inspiration took me and I spread my arms wide in a "come at me bro" sort of gesture as bullets continued to pepper my whole body and even my face. I _almost_ let out some maniacal laughter for shits and giggles but managed to hold it in.

After I was completely immune Oni Lee kept firing for another ten seconds before upping the ante yet again. I lowered my center of gravity a bit and braced myself for what was coming, all the while looking at the sky with my arms open like some cheesy dramatic actress in the rain. My ears picked up the "clink" of a metal grenade being dropped at my feet. Seconds later the damn thing exploded completely covering me in the blast.

Surprisingly the grenade did next to no damage that I could sense. The worst part was how disorienting and unpleasant it was to my enhanced senses to be so close to an explosion like that. When he saw that I was fine Oni Lee then began to teleport in rapid succession dropping grenade after grenade at my feet.

I could feel some changes starting in me now, changes I had not experienced before because I had never taken this much damage. My feet for one had started changing from looking like an armored moccasin to developing claws... instinctively I knew they could be used to grip at the ground as I moved. There was another feeling of pressure in my lower back and... yes. It seemed I was slowly growing a tail. Barely a foot long at that point but still there. Huh. Weird.

Also I noticed my senses started to become better too, becoming even stronger as time went on. My sense of smell especially continued to improve at an almost disorienting rate. Before long I had to simply ignore that sense altogether as I was bombarded with entirely too much information from my surrounding.

The cacophony of explosions went on for almost half a minute before they ceased. I was surprised by how heavy my body felt. My feet were making heavy indentations on the packed dirt ground by just standing there. I lowered my arms and looked straight ahead. There was only one part left to this test and I had to say this was the part I had simultaneously been looking forward to the most and looking forward to the least.

If I wanted to get the most cred and make sure I was respected – or at least feared to some extent – Lung had said there was one sure way to do that.

"RAAAWR!"

Lung yelled a battlecry ran at me like a charging bull. Okay. Okay. He'd said not to hold back, that he could take it. I believed him. Lung barreled at me, his nearly seven foot frame looking as unstoppable as a locomotive.

Doing my best to remain calm I waited for the best time to strike. Lung looked terrifying in a charge but he was actually making this fairly easy. When he was close enough I stepped in and punched him in the chest with everything I had.

It was kind of sickening actually. I felt my fist break bones like flimsy toothpicks and actually felt my father's flesh depress and break under my fist. He was thrown back some ten feet landing on top of a junked car with a grunt of (manly) pain. I almost broke character by running up to him and asking if he was okay when he didn't get up right away. Intellectually I knew he would be fine but I couldn't help a brief moment of worry that I had gone too far.

After two seconds however he stood up, the deep depression in his chest already filling out. In front of my eyes Lung went from "close to seven feet" to "easily over seven feet" in a matter of moments. He didn't waste any time, almost casually ripping a door off the junked car he had landed on and throwing it at me like a discus.

The damn thing flew shockingly fast straight at my head catching me by surprise. I put up my arms in front of my face at the last second and the metal door crunched around me and somehow got stuck. More out of surprise than anything I stumbled a step back, caught off guard by the sudden violence of the attack.

Lung wasted no time charging me again while I was slow to rip the car door off of me. When he hit me like a linebacker it actually didn't hurt much at all. While normally I should have gone flying from a blow like that I was so heavy I just stumbled a single step before falling on my ass. Lung surprisingly bounced off of me and had to struggle to keep on _his_ feet from the impact between us.

While I was on the floor I saw him rip his metal mask off, throw it away and turn to face me. His face was already distorting like I'd been told it would and he was now unrecognizable. Then he took a deep breath and set me on fire.

Thankfully this was something we'd tested before and other than making me feel a bit warmer fire wasn't uncomfortable. I stood up under a constant stream of fire even as I felt my body get heavier and harder, my senses enhance even further and the thick "tail" I was growing had to be at least three feet long by now. After a moment of effort I easily tore off the door that had gotten stuck around me and threw it away. Pushing through the inferno I stepped up and tried to slug Lung across the face.

Emphasis on "tried" as this time he moved back enough to dodge my blow. His flames stopped and for a moment we both faced each other, hands coming up in defensive stances. While I wasn't exactly a martial arts master I'd dabbled in different styles enough over the years to have a pretty good idea of what I was doing. I didn't know if Lung knew any martial arts but I was willing to bet he had enough experience to where it wouldn't matter all that much.

Lung started things off with a jab at my face. It was fast enough to surprise me and it hit me in the face... though it didn't do much more than turn my head a bit. I stepped forward and swung but Lung was surprisingly nimble as he stepped back out of reach. He was now about eight feet tall and towered over me by about two feet but somehow I didn't feel the least bit physically intimidated. Lung may be big but I felt practically indestructible at that point.

Lung suddenly "exploded", fire washing over me and obscuring my vision. My other senses however told me that he was charging. I ducked low to the ground and punched out blindly. My fist collided with his pelvis and I felt bones break as he stumbled back. It hardly seemed to slow him down as charged me again immediately, hitting me with his massive bulk unexpectedly and causing me to stumble backwards.

It felt like we were two titans smacking each other without doing any significant damage... which was good, since we didn't actually want to really injure the other, but bad in that it was somehow a frustrating situation. Instead of focusing on the fight I tried to tap into another facet of my powers that I'd had an inkling of before but had not tried out in earnest. Now that my "transformation" had progressed a great deal it would be an ideal time to test it.

It was actually instinctual and remarkably easy to do. I hit a mental "switch" and suddenly I felt lighter than air. This time I didn't wait for Lung to come to me. I crouched low and charged at him, my sudden explosive speed catching both him and me by surprise. I barreled into him and deciding to go with it I wrapped my arms around his waist just kept running until we both crashed into the mountain of junked cars at the edge of the junkyard.

However I must have hit it a bit _too_ hard as suddenly we had close to a dozen stacked vehicles crashing down on us from where they had been neatly crushed and stacked. I was frozen by surprise but Lung had no such problem. He pulled his arm back and slugged me in the chest with everything he had even as we were being "crushed" by falling vehicles.

This time he actually sent me flying clear to the other side of the junkyard like I was a football. I crashed into the cars there but thankfully didn't create another collapse. The blow didn't hurt but the impromptu trip by air _was_ extremely shocking. It finally occurred to me what might be going on when I switched a mental trigger and felt so much lighter. _Mass cancellation?_ I could make myself lighter without losing strength it seemed. There were probably some clever ways I could use that. That was really cool.

I picked myself up just as Lung was tearing his way out of being buried under cars. He was now almost nine feet tall, his face truly a shocking monstrous thing. His clothes were completely gone but thankfully his transformation did away with any, uh, guy parts at this point. That would have been awkward. I noticed that my tail had grown to almost five feet in length. Experimentally I moved it around. It was like another limb that was thick as my thigh and it felt strong as hell. Agile too. If I could have I would have grinned. Time to see if I could use my new appendage in a fight.

To my (surprisingly) great disappointment Lung held his hand up to me in the universal sign for "stop". We'd arranged that he would determine when we would stop and that would be the signal. Feeling frustrated I nonetheless did what I was supposed to and bowed my head obediently to show everyone that he was in charge. While it seemed odd to me father had assured me this part of our show was really important. Whatever. I'd always been a bit of a "good girl" and I had no real problems following my father's rules if he thought it was for the best.

Making a satisfied sound Lung turned and walked towards the building behind where the five men had been watching. I briefly turned to look at them. Most of them looked a bit rattled or uncomfortable even though they were tying to hide it. Taking a deep breath I took in the acrid scents of lingering fear and anxiety coming from that direction. Well, we had been kind of close to them when we were throwing down. Shaking my head slightly I turned in the opposite direction. I needed to go back to the gym to get changed so I headed in that direction, Oni Lee for some reason following behind me like some silent shadow.

+++ **The Art of War** +++

It took twenty minutes of me sitting in a room by myself while trying to meditate and think calm thoughts before the transformation began to recede. In less than five minutes every speck of the black chitin "armor" was completely gone and I was a normal human girl again. A normal nude human girl so I was very glad I'd insisted on privacy while I did this part.

After a very quick shower in the gym bathrooms I donned the clothes Lung had picked out for me earlier that evening. Black long sleeved turtle neck, black slacks and black hiking boots. Heck I'd even made sure my underwear was black for good measure. Over my face I donned the simple feminine noh mask that Lung had given me.

I felt considerably less intimidating now that I was roughly six inches shorter and once again had the skin of a squishy human. Still I wasn't about to disappoint or embarrass my father even if I didn't particularly want to be here doing this. Holding my head up high I left the bathroom and walked out of the gym. Oni Lee detached himself from the wall he had been leaning against and followed me like a silent bodyguard.

Walking back across the junkyard to the site of our little exhibition we kept moving past that until we came to what looked like one of those mobile office buildings sometimes used on construction sites and the like. I let Oni Lee take the lead and he led us inside where the upper echelons of the ABB were waiting.

We entered what looked like a cheap conference room with a long table. Six men were standing around talking. Most noticeable was Lung who towered over them, once again dressed (in black this time) and with his metal mask firmly on his face. There were drinks in almost everyone's hands and cigarette smoke hung thick in the air. Every eye turned to us as we entered the room. Hiding behind a mask somehow helped my confidence and I stood up straight and proud as I marched inside.

"Our newest member," Lung said in English as we walked in. "Since she is new we have not settled on a permanent cape name for her yet. For now she is going as _Kuro_."

 _Kuro._ Or 'Black' in Japanese. While not exactly the most...imaginative I supposed it was very descriptive of my armored form.

"Gentlemen," I greeted in an even, steady voice with a faint hint of condescension. Just like I had been instructed to.

"Come Kuro," said Lung gesturing for me to come forward, "meet the men who run our day to day operations."

The rest of my visit there was a whirlwind of introductions and meaningless pleasantries, though everyone was much more polite than I would have expected from a bunch of criminals. They were a diverse bunch (barring the fact they were all Asian). Some came across as stone cold serious professionals. Others reminded me of Yao Lang in that they were naturally charming and personable. And one or two of them just gave me the creeps... words like 'sleaze', 'slimy' and 'molester' came to mind when meeting a couple of those guys. It was an effort to keep my revulsion in check when I shook their hands.

At least they all seemed strangely respectful which I could appreciate.

I made a special note to remember all their names in case I needed to know them in the future and I tried not to dwell too much on... their areas of responsibility as they came up in conversation. Xin Mao was in charge of 'product' which I could only guess meant drugs. Cornelius Kim AKA Daddy Corn said a bunch of fancy terms which basically came down to him being in charge of both gathering 'protection' money and counterfeiting. A man introduced only as Watanabe seemed to be in charge of the gambling, racketeering and all other 'business' operations (whatever that meant). Tommy Oda was the ABB's lawyer. Finally a greasy sleazeball introduced as Donnie Wong was in charge of... I quote "the girls."

It didn't take a genius to realize that meant Donnie Wong was something like the "master pimp" of the ABB. That revelation made me... somewhat uncomfortable. My own opinion on prostitution was that if a woman wanted to do that it was her own business though the whole concept was not something I really liked to think about. I also knew that prostitution tended to have things like drugs and being beholden to unscrupulous pimps. Still it's not like anyone _forced_ a woman to walk the streets as a prostitute or anything. Feeling uneasy I decided to put the whole issue from my mind.

Just from hearing their job descriptions I got to know a lot more in one evening about ABB operations than I had in the years I'd known that my father was a gang leader. At the time I wasn't sure what to think. I was a pretty liberal person. I thought most recreational drugs should be legalized (and regulated) even though I had no interest in doing drugs myself. I thought safe prostitution should be legal. If people wanted to gamble, why not? Still there was definitely something that was... somewhat dark about what we were discussing. Like I could somehow tell this wasn't a bunch of hipsters selling weed but instead it was something much more serious, much more potentially violent. I definitely wasn't entirely comfortable with the activities of the ABB and didn't know how much I wanted to get involved, or if I wanted to get involved at all.

Thankfully the mingling and "meet and greet" didn't last very long. Less than thirty minutes later the men started heading for the doors after a few not-so-subtle verbal hints from Lung. I stood by a window as they left and watched as each of them got into their own cars. In each car were one or two guys waiting, presumably drivers or bodyguards or some such that had stayed behind while the "big boys" went in to talk. When they finally all left I breathed a sigh of relief and took my mask off now that it was just me with Lung and Oni Lee. Perhaps unsurprisingly I was a lot more comfortable with those two than with those other guys even if they had been "normal."

"Well..." I said as I looked out the window thoughtfully, "that was a thing."

"Hmm," grunted my father. Something about his tone made me turn to look at him.

Kenta took off his metal mask spoke to me. "Dealing with them can be unpleasant but they are necessary."

I made a sound of acknowledgment before suddenly feeling somewhat insecure. I hugged my arms together and rubbed them lightly. "So... everything went well then?"

"Yes," he said simply. Eying me for a few moments he then added in Japanese. " _You did better than I expected Katsuko-chan. Well done."_

I couldn't help it. A big smile spread across my face and I beamed up at him. _"Sure. Anytime you need me for anything I'll be happy to help father."_ I didn't really think about what I was saying, I just made the offer spontaneously. But I wasn't about to take it back after I'd said it.

He nodded at me, the smallest of smiles appearing on his lips. " _I'm counting on it."_

=========  
Author's Notes

Introductions are over and now Katsuko gets to go to Winslow. Since she comes from a decent school this won't make a great impression. Comments, thoughts and suggestions are all welcome.


	5. Chapter 5

**The Art of War (Worm AU)**

 **==========  
Chapter 5  
==========**

"If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow. "

 _-Chinese Proverb._

 **October 23, 2010  
**

I generally try to see the bigger picture from different perspectives. Take into account extenuating circumstances when I can, look at things in a positive light, the glass is half full, that kind of thing. Which is why it took me nearly two weeks to until I gave up, threw my hands in the air and categorically labeled Winslow High as "a completely pile of crap in every way a school can conceivably be a huge pile of crap."

Maybe I was just biased because I'd gone to the best public middle school and high school in Tampa Bay. Still I didn't think a school where it seemed that half the students came armed should be without metal detectors at the entrances. Or without guards in the school since fights seemed to break out everyday (though thankfully usually devoid of weapons on school grounds). Maybe I was exaggerating a tad but the feeling of general anarchy and lawlessness pervading the school had been shocking. I was almost positive the teachers were deliberately ignoring any misbehavior so long as it occurred out of their classrooms. One time I saw a teacher turn a corner, take one look at a couple of guys in gang colors taking swings at each other in the hallway, then immediately turn around and head back the way she had came from.

Not what I was used to to say the least.

The academics at least were... not an absolute disaster though it was considerably worse than what I was used to. The teachers seemed much more stressed and overworked for one. They also did a pretty terrible job in containing the more disruptive elements in class, oftentimes choosing to just ignore or talk over those who were disruptive (who were usually E88 or – to my intense displeasure – ABB wannabes). Still if you focused you could still get good grades and at least a half decent education. However the general environment encouraged mediocrity at best and outright apathy from the students at worst.

As someone who took my education seriously Winslow had turned out to be a shocking disappointment.

However the general awfulness of Winslow was not the most shocking adjustment I had been forced to make in my first two weeks. I didn't know who but _someone_ had spread the word around the ABB elements at school that I was someone... I dunno, important? Related to someone important? I still wasn't clear on that. However on the very first day it seemed that everybody already knew the name "Katsuko Shiba."

It was weird as all hell, having every Asian kid at school who wore something green and red (which was roughly half) suddenly treating me like some kind of royalty. Some would bow to me slightly when they passed me on the hallways. Pretty much all of them were uncharacteristically respectful and deferential. The braver ones had come up and tried to schmooze up to me which I generally rebuffed politely but firmly. It was overall a surreal and somewhat uncomfortable experience for someone who had never experienced anything like it in her life.

Compounding the new bizarre social reality I found myself in was one unfortunate fact: everyone else at the school noticed how the ABB members were treating me. _Everyone_. So while the Azn Bad Boy hanger ons worshiped the ground I walked on, the skinheads would either eye me cautiously or sneer at me, and all the other "regular" students tended to avoid looking at me in the eye. Even some of my new teachers seemed scared of pissing me off somehow.

I suspected that Lung had something to do with this even though I hadn't been able to get him to admit it. Needless to say the whole mess had completely gutted and limited my potential social life. I was hoping to make new friends at school but with me being treated like some kind of ABB royalty that seemed impossible. That is unless I wanted to make real friends with those who fancied themselves aspirants to the ABB. That option was way, way on the back burner for the moment.

Still while I didn't consider myself as having friends you could say I had a couple of... groupies? Hanger ons? Who'd I become friendly with simply from the fact that they refused to take my subtle hints to leave me alone. They weren't _too_ bad for wannabe gang bangers. They were also at the top of the ABB social hierarchy at school, seemingly having "won" the honor of hanging out with me by being top dogs in the pecking order. I found the whole concept of a subtle competition to monopolize my attention beyond bizarre but at least the two of them were not complete tools. Mostly.

The bell for lunch rang and I was the first person out of my seat and heading for the door after History class. A petite white girl practically jumped out of my way with a slightly wide eyed look when I tried to walk past her on my way to the exit. That kind of reaction was something I had unfortunately started to get used to. Once out in the hall I immediately started walking towards the cafeteria at a fast pace wondering if this would let me dodge one of my "admirers" or whatever the hell you wanted to call them.

No such luck. Not even a minute later a girl with a diamond shaped face so angular you could practically cut yourself on it slid up next to me. I was starting to think she ditched classes early just so she could catch me on the way to lunch.

"How did your project go?" she asked casually.

I shrugged with one shoulder. "Fine. Teacher seemed to like it well enough even though half the class seemed to talk through most of the presentations."

She nodded with a thoughtful humming sound. "They didn't disrespect you too badly... did they Kat?"

Somehow I _knew_ that if I mentioned any names she was going to arrange whoever I named to get the crap beat out of them. I turned my head and gave her a hard look. " _Damn it_ Song. I don't need you doing me any more 'favors' like that. Once was _plenty_."

"I'm just saying, you can't let people disrespect you and leave it unanswered," Song said in perfectly reasonable tones. "When that happens every idiot with delusions of grandeur will start probing for weaknesses and making your life complicated."

"How many times have I told you, I don't need to worry about crap like that. I'm not even a full member of the gang," I said, my voice touched with frustration and some resignation as I already knew my protests would fall on deaf ears.

Sure enough Song just shrugged and gave me a slight knowing smile. "Whatever you say. Just keep in mind that the word from upstairs says otherwise. In the end perception counts as much as whatever the reality actually is."

Song-sook Cho was the child of Korean immigrants. She was a Senior at Winslow who had risen to the top of the pecking order by, as far as I could tell, being almost scarily street smart and completely ruthless when she thought she needed to be. With her almost painfully angular face and chin length dark hair she was much more 'striking' than 'pretty' but it somehow just seemed to work for her. While I didn't exactly consider her a friend I had at least come to be... glad that I at least had Song to talk to. Even if she could be a fucking vicious bitch.

Case and point, on my second day at Winslow apparently an ABB wannabe hadn't gotten the right memo. The guy got in my face and started trying to intimidate me with his size, typical macho dominance bullcrap. Next day Song and two other guys had dragged him into the lunchroom, both eyes swollen shut from one hell of a beating, forced him to kneel in front of me as I was eating lunch, and made him apologize to me in front of everyone.

Song got suspended for two days. Coincidentally it was around that time that everyone _not_ wearing red and green stopped talking to me. _Go figure_.

"So what's going on with your classes?" I asked her for lack of anything better to say. We made small talk about school while we walked and I was glad for that bit of normalcy at least.

When we got to the lunchroom I went to sit at "our" long table (which I meant the table where the ABB kids with the most status sat at) while Song went to get a lunch tray. As had become normal I sat on one end at the "head" of the table. Other kids in ABB colors came in and gave me respectful nods or little bows before they sat further down the table. There were only two or three people with enough status to sit with me near the top of the table after all.

One of those "high status" people smiled widely at me when he spotted me, wearing a red coat with a green muscle shirt underneath. Ridiculous, yes, but that sort of tended to describe this guy anyway. Jonas "Johnny-T" Tran was a big guy and as far as I could figure it _he_ had made his way to the top by being a personable thug. People liked him, he made friends easily, and he was big enough and trained enough to beat the shit out of just about anyone. Nice guy overall. Not the smartest in the world and a bit quick to resort to violence – especially with other guys – but usually not that bad.

"Hey Johnny. How's it going?" I asked politely as I pulled my brown bagged lunch out of my backpack.

"Not bad," he said cheerfully as he sat down across from me, pulling out a wrapped up burrito he had for some reason been keeping in his inner coat pocket. "Same shit, blah blah. What about you? Kick anyone's ass lately?"

I rolled my eyes at that and started laying out my lunch in front of me. "Not everyone thinks fights are stress relief Johnny." Though having gone nearly two weeks without cutting loose with my powers had started making me seriously twitchy.

"Oh come on little Kitty. I'm sure you'd like it if you gave it a shot," he said with a grin while biting into his burrito.

The smile dropped from my face and my eyes narrowed on the guy sitting across from me. This was one issue I wanted to nip in the bud. "That's Kat or Katsuko to you Jonas. Do _not_ call me Kitty."

Johnny's mirth vanished and was replaced with confusion and indignant rebellion. "Hey, what the hell? It's no big deal. It's just a fucking nickname."

I gritted my teeth. For some reason I couldn't properly explain this had become a big deal to me over the years. In Tampa everyone had called me 'Kat'. Only those the people I had dated and my very closest friends had been allowed to call me 'Kitty'. It was, I don't know, a trust thing. An intimacy thing. Maybe it was stupid but these people were _not my friends_. Maybe I was being irrational but I wasn't going to let people just call me whatever they wanted.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see that all the other people at our table were suddenly watching. _Crap_. What Song had said earlier rang in my mind. I couldn't back off now or de-escalate it into a joke or something even if I'd wanted to. Not if I didn't want to come across as weak. Word from 'upstairs' or not I wouldn't get any respect if I didn't stand up for myself.

I'd never been very scary, or particularly aggressive, but since triggering both things had started coming to me surprisingly easy. I leaned forward slightly and locked eyes with him, and I knew my gaze was suddenly diamond hard and deadly serious. "Don't push on this Jonas. I'd rather things stayed friendly between us."

We stared each other down across the table for a handful of seconds, tension running high. He was the one who broke first. "Yeah, okay, sure, whatever you say," he said looking away briefly before shrugging. "I'll call you Kat, no big deal."

I gave him a tight humorless smile. "Don't worry about it Johnny. Everyone makes mistakes."

With that I could almost physically feel the tension drain from the table. They had all been watching us, anxious to see who would come out on top in yet another small bout of social maneuvering. I had to suppress a sigh as I bit into the apple I'd brought with my lunch. In a perfect world I would have liked to be able to say that I didn't really care about my status in the social pecking order of the ABB at Winslow. The truth however was that for different reasons I actually did care. Unfortunately some part of me felt as if that was somehow a failing on my part.

I still didn't know what people had been told about me and part of me didn't even want to ask. I didn't particularly want to be the ABB social head at Winslow and I was still uncomfortable with the idea of being deeply involved with the gang. However part of me knew, just _knew_ that Kenta would be disappointed if I couldn't hang on to the top spot at Winslow when it had practically been handed to me on a silver platter. I couldn't tell you how I knew but it was a gut feeling I was sure was right.

Also... even though I was iffy on my own ABB participation I was still Lung's daughter dammit. Though I knew he wasn't any kind of saint part of me still took a kind of twisted pride in that. There was also the fact that I was a cape. For some reason the idea of just letting a regular human be "superior" to me in the social pecking order just rubbed me the wrong way. If I was going to be involving myself with the ABB kids staying on top was the only outcome I could really bring myself to stomach... and given that no one else was likely to want to associate with me at Winslow it looked like the ABB wannabes would be my only social circle for the immediate future.

Depressing thought that. Something to think about later. Maybe I would need to look elsewhere in order to make some real friends.

Song joined us with her lunch tray and sat down next to me pulling me out of my thoughts. The table was getting crowded now that lunch was in full swing so Song had a full audience when she spoke. "You guys hear about the fight with the Empire on Polk and MLK last night?"

No, apparently they hadn't. Yes, they would be very interested in hearing what she knew. I ate my sandwich as I listened to what gossip Song had to share with the table. The more I listened the more a frown started to form on my face.

"Wait, all their guys have radios?" I asked cutting in.

Song looked briefly annoyed by the interruption but shook her head. "Not all of them, but a lot of them. Lets them coordinate better than using cellphones supposedly. That's how they got two of their capes there so fast."

"Why don't our guys have radios?" I asked. I tried not to wince when I realized I automatically included myself in the 'our'.

Song shrugged and sat back a little. "That kind of gear is expensive. The Nazi's always seem to squeeze more money out of their territory somehow... either that or they got some kind of income we don't know about. They usually have more guns, cars for their capes, that kind of thing. Plenty of money to throw around."

There were nods all around, people looking grim. Johnny-T just punched his fist into his hand menacingly. "Whatever. Even with all that crap we still kick their ass. And we got _Lung_. Not matter what they throw at us we'll still send those Nazi bitches packing every single time."

"Fuck yeah we will," said Song with a small upward curve of her lips. The other five or so people at our table all made appropriate noises of agreement.

Lunch proceeded like that for a while, with me usually only speaking up when I had a question about something they were talking about. Everyone seemed to accept I was new and were pretty nice about explaining things all things considered. I was slowly learning more and more about gang life and gang culture. In a lot of ways it was like a whole different world that you had to be initiated into to really understand. In spite of the rather... questionable nature of the whole business I found simply learning more about how it all worked to be really quite fascinating.

And of course they also talked about capes. Everyone loved to talk about capes. Apparently there was a rumor that the ABB had just recently acquired a new cape that hadn't been revealed publicly yet. I caught Song briefly eying me and sharp as she was I'm sure she was wondering if that was the reason I was so special. Still no one else seemed to think along the same lines and I have to say I was really glad for that. Wild speculation that I was a cape was one of the _last_ things I wanted.

It was maybe halfway though lunch when something out of the ordinary happened. I spotted a student not dressed in ABB colors heading straight for our table with determined strides... which was odd because nobody approached our table. Ever. Not unless they wore green and red anyway. The serious expression on the guy's face made me wonder what his deal was.

However we weren't the only ones who noticed this guy approaching. On the table next to us were other Asians wearing red and green. One guy slapped the other on the shoulder and they both stood up to bar the path of the student that seemed so intent on coming to my table. The ABB guys stopped him and right away an argument between the three of them started.

 _We have gatekeepers?_ I thought with a raised eyebrow. _I didn't know we had gatekeepers._ _Who would have thought?_

The student who was currently trying to come to our table was really tall for an Asian teenager, roughly six feet, but he was so skinny it almost looked downright unhealthy. He wore thick glasses and his face was covered in acne. All of that was starting to paint a certain kind of picture.

"Who is that guy?" I asked Song as I kept an eye on the escalating argument.

"That's Edward Tan," answered Johnny-T with a mocking tone, "supposed to be some kind of super egg head or some shit. Never had any trouble keeping him in line, guy's a total wimp."

"He's our year's Valedictorian," began Song, sounding exasperated at JT. "Supposed to be a genius. Takes every AP class he can and supposedly gets a perfect score on just about everything. The teachers love to rave about him."

"Wait," I said sounding genuinely surprised as I turned to face Song. "Winslow has AP classes?"

Song's smile was a thin, rueful thing. "I think they get extra funding from the state if they offer them. No other reason for classes like that in this shithole."

I chewed that over as I turned back to look at the scene playing out in front of us. The argument was becoming more heated, with the student I now knew as Edward awkwardly gesticulating. From what I could see of his face it was... sort of... determined but wildly desperate. It gave me a bad feeling. That wasn't the type of face you normally saw at a school, even one as bad as Winslow.

"What does he want?" I asked out loud, half to myself.

"To talk to you," said Song like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

I turned to her incredulously. "Talk to _me_? _Why?_ "

"Hell if I know," said Song with a sudden disinterested air. "Probably wants something from you. That's how it always works."

I practically gaped at her. _What the hell?_ _Am I seriously getting petitioners now?_ My life was starting to feel too much like an old Aleph gangster movie.

The Edward guy tried to push past the two guys standing in his way only to be pushed back with ease. Aww crap. The guy was starting to look like he was about to cry. He didn't look like he was giving up however and he was starting to cause a scene.

"You want me to send this loser packing?" Johnny-T asked, cracking his knuckles like the cliched thug that he was. It took me a moment to realize he was talking to me.

I suppressed a sigh. _Normal girls don't have to deal with this kind of crap._ I felt kind of bad at seeing how damn desperate Edward seemed to come over to where we were to – presumably – talk to me. Plus it was making me curious.

"No. Let him through," I said, saying the words like I expected them to be carried out and obeyed. I still wasn't used to that, the whole 'you are top dog and people generally do what you tell them to' thing. I was learning though.

Johnny-T looked at me and hesitated for a moment before speaking to the two guys holding Edward up in rapid fire Vietnamese.

Looking surprised the two guys holding up the kid backed off but not before leaving him with a few threats. Edward looked shaken but seemed to steel himself and rally quickly as he made his way towards me with a stiff, awkward gait. I'm usually not one to get hung up on stuff like that but this guy positively _oozed_ nerd from every pore of his being. Not that I would hold something like that against him but still.

"Miss Shiba," he said while briefly bowing low enough to raise some eyebrows from the Americans. There was something stiff about how bow that made it look unpracticed. "Please, I have to speak to you. It is _extremely_ urgent."

I raise an eyebrow at his pleading tone, the whole situation making me feel more awkward and uncomfortable by the moment. His face was pinched with worry, pleading and desperation. Whatever it is that Edward wanted was likely to be more than simply hooking him up with drugs or something... not that I thought there was a very good chance the Senior Valedictorian was a junky on the side.

Part of me is tempted to just send him away, not deal with whatever the problem was... but one look at his face and I didn't have the heart to just run him off. I let out a small sigh and tried my best to give him a reassuring smile, though I'm sure it come out looking more than a bit forced. "Sure," I said, "I'll hear you out. Why don't you take a seat. Edward, was it?"

He hesitated as over a dozen ABB members stared at him. Edward fiddled with his clothes nervously before seeming to gather up his courage. "No, I, I... thank you. I'm sorry, but I need to speak to you in private. If that's okay? Just... please."

God, how can someone make themselves look so sympathetic while at the same time looking so pathetic? Johnny-T scoffed at him. "Princess told you to sit down. So sit your ass down little bitch-man."

That was the first time I'd heard anyone call me _Princess_. Did that mean anything? Something to think about later.

"No, I'll humor him," I said, quickly taking back control of the situation. I stood up and wiped my hands of any crumbs. "I'm sure the smartest guy in school won't waste my time. Isn't that right Edward?"

I'd basically said all that more for the sake of our audience than anything else. The tall Asian kid (I couldn't help but think of him that way even if he was a whole year ahead of me) managed to stutter out a nervous agreement. I made sure to stand confident and make eye contact with Song, Johnny-T and a few of the others that mattered before striding out of the cafeteria like I owned the place. Hopefully Edward would take the hint and follow me out.

Thankfully he did take the hint. Deciding I might as well prepare for my next class I headed for my locker, Edward falling in two steps behind me. He didn't say a word until we reach my locker. Once I start opening the lock Edward finally began to talk. In fact he started to have the opposite problem of not speaking, that is speaking way too fast and not making any sense.

"Look, I'm sorry I'll do whatever it takes I swear, I mean absolutely anything. I don't really have any money but I've qualified for a ton of grants and scholarships and you can have that money when I get it all of it, every last penny but please my sister... I don't know where else to go, you _have_ to help me, I'm really smart, I can tutor you, or come work for you or anything you wa-"

I held up my hand feeling slightly taken aback by his verbal diarrhea. He instantly shuts up and god, he actually looked _scared_ of me. I took the time to finish opening up my locker to give myself a second to think. Once I finish I slowly turn to him, suddenly having a _bad_ feeling in my gut about where this might be going.

"Slow down there. Just... take it one step at a time. Your name is Edward Tan right?"

He hesitated before nodding a little too enthusiastically, like a bobble head doll.

"Okay," I said, a concerned frown forming on my features as I crossed my arms into a thoughtful position. "What's this about your sister?"

Edward licked his lips, his already pale features paling further. He looked like he was about to be sick. "My sister, she was coming home late last night at about four in the morning. She... she was snatched off the streets near our apartment building. By the ABB." He looked me in the eye then. His expression was half accusatory and half that of a puppy expecting a beating.

I'll admit the first thing I felt was confusion. "Your sister's Asian right? Why would anyone from the ABB snatch her off the streets?"

Edward looked at me incredulously, like he couldn't believe this was something he was going to have to explain to me. "Same reason any young poor Asian girl gets snatched off the streets."

I really didn't like the sound of that. Not even one percent. "And the reason for that is...?"

Edward bit his tongue, the expression on his face telling me he was having to readjust his personal reality to reflect that I had no idea what he was talking about. "I don't know the specifics but there's always been a rumor of this place called 'The Farm'."

I was starting to get annoyed at not following with the conversation. "And The Farm is...?"

Edward went on to haltingly explain to me what 'The Farm' was all about. I listened with rising incredulity at how supposedly the ABB would kidnap poor Asian girls from the slums and bad off areas and forced them into the sex trade. He didn't know how often this supposedly happened but it was enough that in most poor neighborhoods girls were not allowed to be off by themselves after dark. Supposedly one of the incentives for young people to join the ABB was that their families would be safe from this type of thing. If what Edward said was to be believed this practice had been going on for a long time.

I didn't quite believe him. Not really. But Edward was desperate enough, near tears despite tying to hold it back, that I was convinced that he at least _thought_ he was right. I also couldn't bring myself believe that he was lying about his sister being taken, not when he looked like that. When I asked him how he knew the ABB had taken her he said some of their neighbors had seen and heard the altercation when she had been forced into a car by men wearing ABB colors practically right in front of their apartment building.

Part of me wanted to throw up. But mostly his story just made me _pissed_.

I held up a hand to stop him again and he immediately quieted down. I wasn't quite sure what to say to him. I needed confirmation. I needed to find out if there was any truth to this... _this._ God I didn't even have words for it.

"Stay here," I said to him, pointing a finger at his face and sounding more sharp than he probably deserved. "I need to make a phone call."

I didn't wait for his answer before I spun around and walked until I turned a corner. The hallway was deserted since everyone was still at lunch. Pulling out the smartphone I had been given I quickly found the contact I was looking for and dialed.

The phone picked up on the third ring. _"_ _Shiba-san,"_ greeted Yao Lang's pleasant voice in Japanese. _"_ _Good to hear from you. However now isn't the best time. If it isn't urgent would you mind terribly if we spoke after you got out of school?"_

" _Lang,"_ I said practically growling his name into the phone. _"_ _Is it true that we're kidnapping girls off the street and forcing them into prostitution?"_

There is a long silent pause. I heard him briefly talk to someone on the other end before hearing a door close on his side a moment later. _"_ _Someone has been spreading rumors at school I see,"_ he said in a neutral but still somehow maddeningly affable voice.

" _Is it true and is it not true?"_ I insisted, surprising myself with how much anger I was putting into my words. _"_ _And before you consider lying to me just keep in mind that sooner or later I'll find out the truth. I wouldn't want to be in your shoes if you try screwing around with me on this."_

There was another long pause before he answered. _"_ _It's definitely one of our less savory revenue streams. This probably won't make you feel any better but we don't do it nearly as much as you might imagine."_

I squeezed my eyes shut, biting my lip hard enough that I could taste blood. God dammit. _God dammit!_

" _You sick son of a bitch. You... sick fuck!"_

" _Woah there Shiba-san. Don't shoot the messenger. I don't set the policies. I just work for your dad."_

My dad. My _dad_ knew about this. I pushed that thought away knowing I needed to keep my cool, to keep my head right now. I wouldn't be able to do that if I started dwelling on... _that._  
" _A girl got snatched up last night by your thugs,"_ I said in clipped angry tones. _"_ _She's a friend of mine,"_ I said making the lie up on the spot. _"_ _I want her released. Right now."_

" _Of course Shiba-san, I don't think doing that for your friend will be a problem,"_ said Yao sounding so agreeable and so damnably calm. _"_ _We'll need to get your father's approval first however."_

" _Fine,"_ I said, _"_ _then_ get it. _"_

" _Unfortunately your father is out of town on some side project of his and he said he'd be out of touch. He should be back sometime this evening. I'll talk to him for you then. As soon as possible, I promise."_

I had to stop myself from crushing the phone in my hand from anger and frustration. Did he really think it was okay to leave a girl in some kind of rape factory for a whole 'nother day?

" _That's not good enough, Lang."_

" _I'm sorry Shiba-san, I really am. But letting a girl go is a huge liability. We can't do something like that without your father's approval."_

I hung on up him, my thumb pushing the disconnect button hard enough to crack the screen. Part of me wanted to throw the phone down the hallway in a fit of childish anger. Instead I closed my eyes and forced myself to take a few deep breaths. If I wanted to fix this I was going to have to think this through. I needed to be calm if... if I was going to come up with some kind of plan.

A thought crossed my mind that would have been funny if it wasn't for the current situation. _It's beyond ridiculous that in a street gang of all things I have to deal with bureaucracy._ After ten slow breaths I felt... a bit calmer. After that it took me only a couple of minutes to come up with the rough outlines of a plan. It wasn't perfect but it was all I had to go with.

Walking back to where I had left Edward next to my locker I found him in the exact same spot I'd left him. He looked like he might literally be worrying and fretting himself to death. Seeing him like that just that just strengthened my resolve to go through with my plan. "Edward," I said, drawing his attention. "Do you know where the main... ugh, ABB whorehouse in Brockton Bay is?"

He blinked and looked at me. "Wait, why don't you know these things?"

"I've only been in town for a few weeks. I actually know very little about the ABB." At seeing his disbelieving look I rolled my eyes. "Look, I just moved into town recently. It's complicated. Now do you want to help your sister or not?"

His eyes widened and lit up at hearing me say that. I felt a bit bad that this was the first time I'd actually confirmed that I was going to help him. "I don't know where it is," he said in a rush, "but I can make a call and find out."

"Good," I said with a firm nod and a sigh. "Go ahead then."

Instead of doing that he just shuffled his feet awkwardly and cleared his throat.

"What?" I asked, feeling annoyed.

"I uh, don't have a phone. Maybe I could borrow yours?" he asked, looking embarrassed.

Something about my earlier conversation with him registers. He'd basically said that he and his sister came from a poor family. Looking him over I noticed for the first time that his clothes looked second hand or like they were hand me downs. Well cared for but worn and expertly mended in a lot of places. I nodded feeling a bit like a heel for having missed something like that. "Sure," I said, handing over my phone with an awkward apologetic smile.

He made the call and had a conversation in rapid fire Mandarin that I could more or less follow along with. It had been a while since I'd practiced. Edward hung up and rattled off the address, for some reason blushing in embarrassment as he did so. He also gave me the name.

"So, the Peony Pavilion," I said thoughtfully wondering at the flowery name for the brothel. Or was it a whorehouse? Was there a difference? I inputed the directions into my phone and found the best bus routes to get there.

I stashed my book bag in my locker before pulling out a smaller canvas backpack that I kept in there with a few essentials. I could honestly say at that point that I had never skipped school day in my life. _I guess there's a first time for everything._

"Come on," I said to him, closing my locker and heading towards the front entrance. "We're going to get your sister back."

"What, right now?" he asked on reflex, sounding almost scandalized. Leaving school early was probably just as alien to him as it was for me.

"Yes now," I snapped at him, "unless you'd rather your sister stay there longer than she has to?"

Edward grimaced before following me without any further hesitation.

~~~The Art of War~~~

Luckily the first bus we needed to take was pulling up just as we got the bus stop. We got in an I payed for both of us. The bus was nearly deserted and we just sort of ended up sitting next to each other near the back.

Edward kept shooting me nervous glances out of the corner of his eyes as the bus got underway. After another minute of this he finally cracked and asked what was on his mind. "So... you got some kind of plan right? About how we're going to get my sister back?"

I did. I told him the plan. I wasn't entirely comfortable with the look of awe and skepticism that settled on his face the more I talked.

"You really think you can do that?" he asked me incredulously.

I shrugged, suddenly feeling self-conscious. "I've got a lot of pull with the ABB," I admitted quietly.

"Really?" he asked disbelievingly, "How? I mean you just arrived in town right? That's what you said."

I shifted uncomfortably. "It's complicated all right? It's not something I can really talk about. Just... I'm going to do my best to help your sister. Just don't ask me any questions about how because I won't answer them."

If the look on his face was anything to go by what I had just said had just made him _more_ curious. However instead of asking he looked to literally swallow his questions before bowing his head a bit. "Thank you Miss Shiba. I honestly didn't expect that someone would be willing to help like this so freely."

"Don't call me that," I said with a grimace, "Kat or Katsuko is fine. I'm just a regular girl. No need to be all proper with me." Okay that was a bit of a lie. I wasn't _quite_ a regular girl. But that didn't mean I didn't want to be treated like one.

Edward just nodded and fell silent. There wasn't anything else to discuss and small talk felt completely inappropriate so we just rode in silence. We stayed that way, silent and each of us tense in our own way even as we changed buses one time. Eventually after a little over an hour of travel my phone pinged that we had arrived at our destination.

We got out and walked a couple of blocks deeper into ABB territory. The streets were mostly deserted at one in the afternoon which probably would work to my advantage. I was so distracted by my thoughts I almost kept going when Edward slowed down and came to a stop.

"This is it," he said standing in front of a wide mouthed alley, looking both nervous but determined in his own way. "At the end of the alley it turns left and down near the end is the entrance. How are we going to do this?"

I winced a little. This part he probably wasn't going to like. "Actually I'll be the one going. By myself. I need you to stay out here on the street and wait for me to come out."

His head turned to face me so fast I was surprised it didn't give him whiplash. "What? But... I can help! And-"

"And nothing," I said cutting him off curtly. Then in a softer tone I said, "Just trust me. You being with me won't help, it will just make things more complicated. I know it's a lot to ask but this really is for the best. Can you at least trust that I'm doing my best to get your sister out of this mess?"

He looked briefly rebellious but it only took a few moments before he caved. "Y-Yeah. I trust you I mean. If you think it's best..."

"I do," I said to him firmly. "If I need your help I'll ask for it. I promise."

He looked only slightly mollified but nodded anyway. Good enough. I walked him to a bench a few dozen feet from the mouth of the alley. He took the hint and sat down.

"How long will you be?" he asked, looking downright miserable.

"I"m not sure," I said honestly. "Might be a quick but I doubt it. Probably best if you settle in for a long wait."

He doesn't look enthused but nods with a resigned expression anyway. I can't help but feel sorry for him.

"Well... good luck," he said kind of lamely.

"Thanks," I said, almost turning away before I remembered something important. "By the way what's your sister's name? And does she have anything to make her easily identifiable? Tattoo, birth mark, anything like that?"

"Her name is Gina," he said, looking stricken when he says her name. "And she has blue hair."

My eyebrows rose at that. "Blue hair?"

He nodded. "Neon blue. She likes to dye it that color."

 _Well. There shouldn't be any way to confuse her with anyone else then._ "Got it," I said while giving him the best reassuring smile that I could manage. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

He nodded and I pretended not to notice his pain filled expression as I turned to walk away. _I'm not going to fail at this. No way._

I stepped into the alley which thankfully was relatively clean as alleys go. A little ways in there was a metal door sunk into an alcove that didn't look like it has been opened in years. I ducked into the depression making sure to stay out of sight of the alley. Looking around I confirmed that there was no one in sight. This was probably the best shot I was going to get if I was going to do this.

Taking off my small canvas backpack and reaching into it I pulled out a cheap plastic party mask with the white face of a woman on it. I put the mask on and tried not to think about what I was doing as I started to take off my clothes right there in the alley. I needed a few minutes of privacy and would absolutely die of embarrassment if anyone happened to walk by during that time.

When I was stripped down to my underwear I pulled out a small swiss army knife I'd started keeping in the backpack. Pulling out the blade I barely hesitated before stabbing it through my hand. It hurt, but I ignored the pain as I worked the blade back and forth to make the injury bigger. Almost instantly it began to heal and I quickly began to feel the pressure building under my skin. Soon small black "spots" of armor started appearing and growing all over my skin.

I pulled the knife out of my flesh, switched hands and stabbed my other arm. I made a bloody mess of things as I continued to stab myself with the small blade for nearly a minute as I slowly felt the pressure build underneath my skin. Finally after what seemed like forever the subdermal pressure from my power reached critical mass. The black stone-like chitinous armor _flowed_ out of my skin until it covered every inch of my body from head to toe. I grew about six inches and I could feel my insides being changed by my power, somehow making everything feel stronger and with fewer... vulnerabilities.

Right. Okay. Now I was appropriately dressed for the party. Time to see if I'd made a big enough impression on certain people when I had been introduced to the gang a few weeks back.

Taking off my now overstretched undies and the mask I stuffed all my clothes in my backpack and put it on. It kind of clashed with the image but I couldn't just leave it behind. Feeling invigorated at being in my full armored form for the first time in nearly two weeks I moved aggressively towards the end of the alley.

Exactly as advertised there was a left turn at the end of the alley and I took it without hesitation. Near the end of this new alley was a heavy door with a garish pink sign above declaring it the Peony Pavilion in English and about four other Asian languages. There were two guys dressed better than your average ABB thug standing outside looking bored. When they saw me their eyes went almost comically wide. I could smell their fear as I approached them and part of me was ashamed to admit I actually enjoyed that. I made my way over to them slowly making sure to look as tall and as menacing as I possibly could.

The two of them seemed frozen in place as I got within arms reach of them. I wondered if those two knew about me or if they just had terrible survival instincts. They were gaping and the smell of their fear had become very strong indeed.

"I have business here," I said, momentarily surprised as I had forgotten how incredibly deep and distorted my voice sounded when fully armored. "Take me to Donnie Wong."

When they hesitated and looked at each other I added just one more word dripping with implied threat.

"Now."

Fortunately for everyone involved that seemed to do the trick.

"Y-Yes!" one of them stammered. "Follow me, right this way!"

They opened the door and quickly scurried inside. I followed right at their heels watching for any signs that they might try to bolt. Being armored made me feel powerful, I was pissed, and I wasn't above manhandling these thugs a little if it got me what I wanted. Thankfully they both led me where I wanted to go without giving me any problems, thoroughly cowed by me presence. Was I really as scary as all that?

The inside of the brothel was cleaner than I would have expected. It was nearly empty but then again I didn't imagine the middle of the afternoon on a weekday was exactly prime time whoring hour for their customers. I caught a few glimpses of women in skimpy over the top clothing as I walked through the twisting dark hallways. At least they didn't seem to be in any distress and none of the ones I saw had looked like minors. All the girls at the Peony Pavilion were probably ones who got into the business willingly. I was convinced that wherever "The Farm" was it had to be at another location not connected to this place. Keeping the kidnapped girls in a place with this much traffic would just be stupid.

The wooden steps creaked ominously as I was led up to the second floor. At the end of the hall the men stopped at a door that was slightly better maintained and more elaborate than all the rest. "This is Mr. Wong's office," one of the men said motioning at the door nervously.

I nodded once. "You may go," I said with all the haughtiness and entitled authority I could muster.

They went, or rather fled, which was just a bit amusing to be honest. Momentarily closing my "eyes" (which were currently nonexistent, so how could I even close them without eyes or eyelids?) and taking a deep breath I barged into the office like I owned the place.

Donnie Wong had been one of the Lieutenants of the ABB that I had been introduced to the day after I had arrived in Brockton Bay. I'd made sure to memorize his name and what he did just in case it was useful information in the future. Donnie Wong was the "master pimp" of the ABB which meant he was in charge of all business having to do with "the girls" as they referred to them. If anyone could get me Edward's sister while Lung was away it was him.

Looking at Donnie Wong sitting on his desk I was reminded why I had not been looking forward to dealing with him again. Dressed in a gaudy suit that was almost as bad as the ones pimps wore in popular fiction the man positively oozed sleaze. There was just something about the way he moved and talked that made every girl instinct in my body scream "molester" and "dangerous to be alone with." He was somewhere in his late twenties decked out with thick gold rings on almost every finger and a few gold capped teeth. Donnie Wong was not a person I would have given the time of day to if I'd had any other choice.

I was gratified to see him just stare at my large armored form in surprise and alarm when I barged into his office. I figured that the best way to approach this was to continue keeping him off balance. Without wasting any time I went over to lean on his desk and loomed over him with my six feet of height as best as I could.

"A friend of a friend was kidnapped by your goons late last night and taken to that goddamn rape factory that you run," I said to him, practically growling. "I want her released. Now."

Wong seemed to gather his wits about him in surprisingly quick order even with the implicit threat I represented. "Eh, Kuro was it? What an unexpected pleasure," he said with an oily fake smile. "Why don't you calm down and take a seat? I'm sure we can talk about this like civilized people. There's no need for any unpleasantness."

"Funny. The guy in charge of a kidnapping and forced prostitution operation wants to lecture me about acting civilized," I said, my voice dry and hash as the desert. "I'm not joking around here Wong. You've seen what I can do. Nothing you can throw at me can stop me. You get me my friend or things are about to get violent." To my surprise I found that it wasn't a bluff. I actually meant it.

I could smell his nervousness but he didn't smell scared just yet. The guy licked his lips, his mind obviously furiously working out how to get out of this. He gave me a smile I'm sure he thought was charming but it just made me want to kick all his gold plated teeth in. "Listen honey, I'd love to help but unfortunately my hands are tied. I understand, trust me, you're worried about your lady friend. I _could_ do you a favor and get the ball rolling but if you want her released we have to go through Lung baby girl. That's just how things work."

I just _stared_ at him. That was roughly the same thing Yao Lang had said. _Leave the girl there, who cares? You can hash it all out with Lung at some point. Not my problem._ No way. Usually I had was the type of person who had respect for procedure and the way things were supposed to be done. In this case however all that bullshit flew out the window. I was going to fix this and I didn't care how many thugs I was going to have to step on to get my way.

Much too quickly for him to react I reached over the desk and grabbed Wong by the coat with two hands. I hauled him over his desk until his face was inches away from mine. If I'd had lips it would have brought an unpleasant smile to my face at finally being able to smell his fear.

"You have two choices right now Donnie," I said, using my tone to mock his name. "Option one: you make a call and have the girl brought here right now. I leave with the girl without making a mess. If Lung has a problem with it I'll take responsibility. Or option two: I start breaking bones in your body until you agree to make that call. Then when Lung asks what happened I'll do everything in my power to throw you under the bus. Maybe he'll think I'm in the wrong but who do you think is more valuable to him? The new cape in his organization or a disgusting little worm like you? Which one of us is the easiest to replace do you think?"

His eyes were wide and the stench of fear was now clogging up the stale air in the office. That was good. I tightened my grip on his clothes and brought him even closer to my face.

"So which is it going to be Donnie?" I hissed.

Thankfully the weasel finally caved at that point. He stammered that he had to make a phone call since the girls were kept in another location. I gave him Gina's description and a minute later he was on the phone talking in a language I don't recognize. Thai, maybe? A fear started forming in my gut. They've had her since four in the morning last night. Has she been... have they raped her already? Gods... how would I even deal with that?

"Make sure your men treat her respectfully," I snapped at him in the middle of his conversation. Donnie gives me a quick nod before adverting his eyes and going back to his conversation.

As his conversation wound down I found myself feeling more and more incensed and disgusted. How many more innocent girls were being held against their will? How many of them were being used against their will?

The next few minutes went by in a blur. To be honest I don't think I was entirely rational. I told Donnie to call back and tell his men to let all of the girls they were holding against their will go. The slimy toilet bug of a man paled before becoming angry, saying that I was going too far. I threatened him. I even smashed his desk to kindling with my fist. Still the man absolutely refused to budge. Why?

"I'm sorry Kuro, but I'm about a hundred times more scared of Lung and Oni Lee than you. I'm not fucking suicidal."

Enough reason come over me at that point to realize that hurting Donnie Wong right then and there wasn't going to help any of those girls. Feeling sick to my stomach I dropped him on his ass on the office floor. I couldn't stay near that guy. I didn't trust myself not to do something I might later regret if I had to stay in the same room as him a second longer.

"I'm going to lock myself in the women's bathroom downstairs and put my civilian face back on," I said to him with barely contained hostility. "Have someone knock when the girl is here."

Without waiting for a reply I stormed out of his office and headed downstairs. My head was swirling with a confused mess of emotions and thoughts that didn't seem to want to coalesce into anything intelligible. I couldn't remember the last time I'd been this _upset_ about something, felt incredibly... angry, betrayed, aghast, I honestly didn't have the words for it all. I decided that for the time being the best thing I could do was calm down. I wouldn't be doing anyone any good in the state I was in and I needed to be at least somewhat calm for when I met Gina.

Locking myself in the bathroom downstairs I sat on the toilet and began the slow process of stripping myself of my armor. Maybe because I wasn't nearly as ramped up as last time it only took me about ten minutes to do so. Keeping in mind that I needed to make an effort to keep my identity concealed I got dressed in a pair of black sweat pants and a black T-shirt that I had in my bag instead of putting back on the clothes I'd worn to school. The cheap plastic mask went back over my face and I hugged my knees and tried to focus on making my breathing slow and even. It was maybe thirty minutes later when there came a hesitant knock on the door.

Gina was waiting in the main entrance of the brothel flanked by two men. The Asian girl was hugging herself and looking at the two men standing on either side of her with fear and anger, her mascara long ago having run down her face due to her tears. Her clothes looked mostly intact though... however I wasn't sure if that meant she had been spared the worst of it or not. She was surprisingly short given how tall her brother was, a full couple of inches shorter than I was, and she was of stockier build than her beanpole of a brother too. As advertised her hair was shoulder length and a bright electric blue, almost cyan, and she had a stud on her right nostril. Even in her disheveled state it was easy to see that she was a cute and attractive girl. It was no real surprise that these scumbags had made a grab for her when they saw the opportunity.

"Get lost," I said to the men as soon as I walked up to them. I was much less intimidating now that I was back in civilian wear but thankfully they didn't decide to make an issue of it and quickly left. Gina hadn't noticed me coming up to them until I spoke. My voice caused her to jump and snap her head in my direction.

"Gina," I said to her in a gentle voice in the most reassuring tones I could muster. "I got you out of that place. You're safe now. I'm here to take you to your bother."

She looked at me with nothing but suspicion and hostility and I couldn't say that I blamed her. Even though she was trying to be brave – and doing a good job at looking the part – I could smell her fear spike when she saw that I was wearing a mask and thus was most likely a cape. Gina just hugged herself tighter as if trying to keep herself together.

"Your brother's close by," I said to her gently, walking past her and opening the 'front door' that led out into the alley. "Come on. He's only a block away."

Looking like she didn't believe me Gina nevertheless began to move towards the door making sure to always keep at least one eye on me. Deciding it might be easier for her if she could see me I took the lead in heading out of the alley. There was only one way for us to go anyway so it wasn't like she could try to make a run for it before we made it back out to the street. I wanted to somehow console her, tell her it was all going to be all right, but I was definitely not the right person to be doing that right about then.

After what felt like the longest walk between two buildings in history we emerged out of the alley and into the afternoon sunlight. Edward was pacing back and forth behind the bench I had left him at looking down at his feet when we came into view. I was about to call out to him when Gina beat me to it.

"Eddie!" she yelled, bumping into me as she ran past in her haste to get to her brother. Edward looked up at the sound of her voice, his face filled almost comically with surprise and disbelief. Gina threw herself into his arms, almost knocking the skinny older teen into the ground. The girl almost instantly began sobbing into his chest and Edward instinctively wrapped his arms around her for all he was worth.

It was a powerful moment. I felt like an intruder, a voyeur, but there was something else I needed to say before I left the two of them to their reunion in private. Edward finally looked at me over his sister, his body going stiff and his face shocked as he took a look at my mask.

I calmly walked close enough to where neither of them would have a problem hearing me. Pitching my voice so (hopefully) it would sound different than my normal voice I spoke to them. "They won't bother you again. You don't have to worry about them coming after you again or anything like that. You have my word."

Gina didn't give any sign of having heard me, her head still buried in her brother's chest as she cried. Edward however had his mouth open and was blinking at me like he was trying to figure out a puzzle. He looked at my backpack, and at my hair, and then at my shoes. Aw hell. _Shit shit shit._

"K-Kat? Is that you?" he asked in a hushed whisper.

 _Fuck! I'm supposed to have a secret identity. It's supposed to be a secret!_

"No," I said for lack of anything else clever immediately coming to mind. It sounded weak and unconvincing even to my ears. "I, uh, have to go."

Before he could say anything else I turned and ran, crossing the street and ducking into another alley. Great. Just great. I didn't even last two whole weeks in Brockton Bay before blowing my secret identity. What the hell had I been thinking? Edward was supposed to be some super incredibly smart genius. Of course he'd put it together that the masked girl walking his sister out was me, especially since we were wearing the same shoes and bag. _Stupid, stupid, stupid!_

However as I ran and lost myself in deserted back alleys I reflected that if it meant getting Gina out of the so-called "Farm" then... it was totally worth it. Even if it might cause some problems in the future it was still worth it. Something like that would _always_ be worth it.

Still thinking about Gina I couldn't help but think about all those other girls that had been left behind. The whole practice was sick and I couldn't even imagine why it was going on in the first place. _Why?_ It just didn't make any sense to me. _Why would the ABB be doing that?_ And worst of all... why was _**Lung**_ allowing it to happen at all?

 _This kind of thing has got to stop_. I'd never been any kind of social crusader but... having something like this shoved right in my face... I just couldn't ignore it. Maybe before I could have tried to forget about it and get on with my life but I couldn't bring myself to do that now. Maybe I was just braver now that I had powers. I'd never considered myself an especially courageous person. However now that I had powers...

… I wasn't going to stop until this _abomination_ was put to an end. Especially since by association I felt like I had something to do with it.

That night as soon as he got back I was going to talk to Lung. And he had better have a good explanation for this... or things between us were very quickly going to fall apart.

=========  
Author's Notes

That chapter turned out waaay longer than I thought it would. Next chapter involves talking to Lung and the appearance of more canon characters. Hope you enjoyed this one. Look forward to it.


	6. Chapter 6

**The Art of War (Worm AU)**

 **Chapter 6**

"Behold them, conquerors of the world, the toga-clad race of Romans!"

- _Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus Augustus._

 **October 23, 2010**

It was well into the evening when I finally got my chance to talk to my father. He'd recently returned from his trip and a couple of clipped text messages between us told me I could now go up to his penthouse on the top floor. Putting down the book I'd been trying to read I walked out the front door of my apartment and took the elevator. It was time for us to have a serious conversation... one that part of me desperately wished I could avoid but which was necessary all the same.

I felt unusually calm as I rode the elevator up. I'd been very angry, very emotional that afternoon and though I think it was justified... that wasn't really me. I was the kind who usually kept her head and tried to be logical even when people around me were getting hotheaded and emotional. Not to say I was unaffected from that afternoon but I was more... numb now. I liked numb. Or I liked numb _better_ at any rate since it made me feel like I still had some degree of distance and control. Yet I was also calm. I'd been reading the Tao Te Ching to get into a better mindset for this upcoming talk. I'd done my best to accept the consequences of this conversation whatever the outcome might be. Now all that was left to do was to carry out the inevitable.

After I had calmed down I had come to realize that I didn't want to believe my father was a bad or evil person. I was willing to listen to what he had to say though for the life of me I couldn't think of anything that would justify this kind of business. Distance and time had served to cool the embers of my outrage but they had not extinguished entirely. Still true to form I was going to do my best to withhold final judgment until I heard both sides of the story.

When the elevator opened on the top floor I exited and quickly let myself into his penthouse apartment. I was surprised by how dark it was inside. Not a single light was on anywhere that I could see. It was raining outside, heavy stormy weather that was loud as it clattered against the numerous windows in the spacious apartment. The occasional flash of lightning and thunder made things just a little eerie. However since triggering the darkness didn't really bother or impede me very much at all. I wondered if the reason everything was so dark was because Lung had as few problems seeing in the dark as I did.

I walked through the penthouse already knowing the way and making my way down the corridor that led to the private rooms. At the end of the hallway his office door stood partially open as if waiting for me. With only a tiny stutter of hesitation I knocked firmly on the open door before letting myself inside.

He was sitting behind a surprisingly modern desk in the dark while reading some official looking documents in a folder. It looked like my ideas about his night vision were confirmed if him reading like that was anything to go by. He obviously knew that I was there but he didn't look up from what he was reading. If this was some kind of power play I wasn't in the mood to just meekly play along.

"Lung," I said in a quiet voice mostly devoid of all emotion. "I'm assuming you already know what I was up to today."

He looked up from what he was reading then and fixed me with an unreadable expression. Still he didn't say anything but instead just looked at me, silently demanding that I continue. Whether that was to explain myself or simply speak my mind I didn't know.

Truth be told I didn't know where to start. I'd rehearsed a few times how this conversation might play out but all of those plans seemed to fly out of my head and out the window now that I was under Lung's stare. Deciding to just trust myself I went with the first big thing that immediately came to mind.

"I want you to stop the gang's forced sex trade operations," I said. I thought it came out exceptionally calm and respectful all things considered.

Kenta scrutinized me for maybe half a moment before he spoke in a flat emotionless tone.

"No."

I bit the inside of my lip briefly, the first embers of emotion starting to spark in the calm that I was feeling. "Why not? You can't possibly think this kind of thing is justified."

Lung seemed to be expecting a reply like that. Instead of responding he calmly stood up and walked to a large metal filing cabinet behind his desk. Opening it he pulled out a single thin folder. Turning back around he threw the brown document holder on the desk right in front of me.

I did the obvious thing and picked up the folder while eyeing Lung suspiciously. "What's this?"

"Financial records of how much money the so-called Farm brings in every month," Lung said, his tone and expression not giving me any clues as to what he was thinking.

I frowned at his statement but opened the folder anyways. Briefly looking at the contents my eyebrows rose in surprise of their own accord. Those were some pretty damn big monthly numbers. Before I could come up with any sort of reply Lung started speaking.

" _There's one thing you need to get through your head Katsuko_ ," he began in Japanese. " _Remember this because this is the answer as to why I do everything that I do._ " Lung stopped and looked me straight in the eye. Suddenly something about his expression was... _scary as hell_. He was being deadly serious. When I realized he was waiting for my acknowledgment I only just managed to give him a slight nod.

With that he turned his back to me and walked over to one of the full body windows. Something about his posture gave me the impression that he was being reflective in addition to whatever it was he wanted to say to me. The heavy downpour outside only added to the slightly surreal quality of the moment.

" _This city is going to be mine Katsuko,"_ he began as he gazed out the window. He said it with such certainty that I had a hard time doubting that it would actually be so. _"I've never had a place that was strictly mine, where I belonged. Years ago I decided to stop wandering and make this city my domain. My home. My kingdom. I will never leave here. Nothing and no one will stand in the way of making this dream of mine a reality._ "

He turned to face me, his eyes suddenly burning with quiet intensity. _"This world only understands three things Katsuko. Fear. Money. Strength. At the end of the day these are the only things that matter and the only things I can allow myself to be concerned with if I'm going to make my dream a reality. That is why I take every advantage that I can. Gambling. Guns. Drugs. Prostitution. Everything is fair game so long as it lets me conquer this city."_

I was taken aback by his sudden declaration. I wasn't sure what I had been expecting but that had not been it. In fact that little speech had given me a window into my father than I had ever had before. We had never sat down and actually talked about something so personal as this in the past. Gears started turning in my brain and it forced me to re-evaluate my opinion of my father.

I liked to read – a lot – and I used that to frame these new revelations in terms I could better understand. My father was, simply put, a modern day warlord. He was someone out to conquer a city-state with a "military" and economic machine loyal to him as opposed to any state or central authority. Even though the comparison wasn't perfect it brought to mind figures like Ghengis Kahn and Attila the Hun... and I couldn't help but think of the great expansions made by the Roman Empire. It was different, yes, but putting things in those terms made it so I could make sense of where my father was coming from.

Thinking of the bigger picture, it changed my whole perspective of the situation somewhat. That didn't suddenly make The Farm any more okay. Not even by a long shot. But for Lung the issue was larger in context than simply what was right and what was wrong. As far as I could tell from reading history that tended to happen with men who were bent on conquest.

"Father..." I began hesitantly. "In some ways I feel like I can respect that. Respect the general scope and... ambition of what you're trying to do. But this kidnapping girls and forcing them into sex business... it has to stop. I don't care how much money it pulls in." I stopped and took a deep breath. "I won't... _can't_ be part of the ABB if this kind of shit is going on."

I paused briefly to look at him but Lung's face was like stone, giving nothing away. With no other real choice I plowed ahead. "Besides, do you have any idea how this kind of thing makes your organization look?" I said trying to appeal to his more practical side which, given what he had just told me, should be more receptive than an appeal made on moral grounds. "You say you want to rule this city. How do you expect the common people to ever support you if the ABB keeps pulling this kind of thing? You'll never get anyone on your side who isn't on your pay roll this way."

"Popular support?" he said cutting in. For the first time Kenta's face showed a hint of emotion – surprise. Also maybe a bit of incredulity. "I don't need popular support to be the last man standing in this city."

I was a total dork. I had read so many historical accounts of conquests and kingdoms and empires I had at least a rough idea of what it would take to make something like what Lung was planning work. I could see that his current approach was ultimately doomed to faliure.

I shook my head at his words. "You're wrong," I said with a certainty that surprised me. "You'll never fully control this city if the people in it won't accept you because they'll always be looking for ways to oppose you or trying to prop someone else up to fight against you. I suppose it is possible you'll succeed with your current strategy but it will be hard as hell and hanging on to power will be near impossible. You can't just brute force everything and expect that to work long term. You just don't have the infrastructure... or the legitimacy... or the disciplined military force you would need to...-" I cut myself off, shaking my head and stopping myself from going into a long rant about historical examples and the value of populist support for a new regime. "You can't just act like everyone outside your gang doesn't matter is all I'm trying to say. It simply isn't going to work."

I stopped talking and Lung was quiet for a long time after that. I honestly had no idea what was going through his mind but I thought that maybe I had surprised him. Maybe. His scrutiny made me want to fidget but I stood strong and held my place. I was starting to understand my father a little better and I didn't think he would respect me if I couldn't hold his gaze without flinching.

After what seemed like a small eternity he stopped looking at me and at the very least he didn't seem dissatisfied with whatever he had seen. When he finally spoke however he steered the conversation back to our original topic. " _Nothing in this world is simply given to us because we ask. If you want something you have to make it happen yourself. I need-"_ he said tilting his head towards the folder I was still holding in my hands, _"that money in order to keep fighting the Empire and all the other powers in this city. Do you really want to shut down The Farm?"_ he asked me in a challenging tone. I could tell right away this was some kind of test from Lung. There was of course only one answer that I could give him in that situation.

" _Yes,"_ I said firmly.

" _Then find me another revenue stream that is equal or greater than this one. If you can pull that off then I'll shut down all of our kidnapping and forced sex operations."_

I bit my tongue holding in any protests that immediately came to mind. Looking at Kenta's dead serious expression I realized that this was the best I was going to get. To be honest I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by the intensity of our conversation to this point. Giving Kenta one last affirmative nod I turned around and marched out of his office.

As I walked away I realize that my father wasn't malicious... he just didn't care. He was driven to the point where anyone who suffered as a consequence of him reaching for his objective was beneath his notice. I wasn't sure why the fact that he was apathetic rather than actively malicious made me feel a little better but it did. Maybe – probably – it shouldn't have but it helped a little. I wasn't... okay with my Father yet. Not by a long shot. But at least for the moment I was no longer prepared to run away from him screaming.

Of course that only left me with one very expensive question... where the hell was I going to come up with that kind of money?!


	7. Chapter 7

**The Art of War (Worm AU)**

 **Chapter 7  
==========**

The general who thoroughly understands the advantages that accompany variation of tactics knows how to handle his troops.

 _-Sun Tzu, The Art of War, Chapter 8, Verse 4._

 **October 24, 2010**

The following morning I was bleary eyed, tired and frustrated. I'd spent pretty much the whole night thinking of the problem and had come up empty on workable ideas. As I sat in my breakfast nook drinking my third cup of tea that morning my mind once again found itself wandering over the ground I had already covered just in case this time I might miraculously come up with something new.

Where could I even? Guns? I had the impression that handguns were plentiful but bigger things like automatic weapons not so much. Even if I ignored the possible moral implications of going that route how would I do it? How do you set up a supply chain for something like that? Where were the suppliers? How do you even find suppliers for illegal weapons? It's not exactly something that would come up on a search engine.

All my other ideas seemed worse. Drugs? I didn't know for sure but I imagined the market for that was already saturated in Brockton Bay. Was there a potentially unexploited market for drugs? If there was I certainly didn't have any luck thinking of it.

There were other ideas that perhaps might have some long term potential. I'd read somewhere once that well made knock off name brand items could pull in quite a bit of cash. Possible if I could somehow find someone who could make believable fakes. Or perhaps it would be possible to open some kind of legitimate business and make money that way. All the money the gang made didn't have to be illegal right? The problem with these ideas however is that they would be risky, take a good deal of money and more importantly time to get running. I wasn't willing to wait a year or two to see if any of my ideas bore fruit... I wanted practices like The Farm to be gone from the gang _yesterday_.

Unfortunately I had absolutely no idea how to pull my self appointed mission off in any reasonable time frame that I would accept.

I made a frustrated noise under my breath and got up to make myself breakfast. I was a decent cook and I'd always found that making food was relaxing. Minutes later I was cooking French Toast while making some eggs over easy... worrying about calories could wait for another day when I wasn't thinking so hard.

Honestly if this had been about getting one big lump sum this would have been easy. I could have... robbed a bank or a jewelery exchange or something. Not exactly something I'd be anxious to do but I wouldn't feel all that guilty knowing those kinds of places were insured. As I plated my breakfast I couldn't help but think I was ill equipped to deal with something like this. I simply didn't have the knowledge or the expertise to come up with a scheme to make the gang that kind of steady money in a short period of time.

As I ate my breakfast I realized I wasn't going to be able to pull this off by myself. I needed help. Savoring delicious and fattening French Toast I mentally went over the list of people I could turn to for help with something like this. That list was unfortunately depressingly short.

There was only one person that I could think of that I could realistically expect might be able to help me come up with a workable plan if I wanted to meet my requirements of "get this done fast." I needed someone with a different perspective. I needed someone who was a lot smarter than me. I needed someone I could expect to reasonably trust. It would also help if this person had some kind of vested interest in seeing places like The Farm shut down. It also didn't hurt that this person probably thought he owed me in a big way – even if I didn't necessarily see it that way.

I needed the help of the smartest guy in Winslow. I needed to talk to Edward Tan again.

+++The Art of War+++

With all the excitement of the day before it was almost bizarre going to school that morning. That morning I declined having an ABB driver take me as had become the norm and took the bus instead. It just didn't feel right accepting that kind of ride while the whole Farm businesses was still up in the air.

As soon as I got to the school I went looking for the person who always seemed to know everything that was going on. Winslow was a big enough school that wandering around looking for one specific student was likely to just end up in frustration. I found Song in her usual spot holding mini-court with a couple of guys in ABB colors.

Walking up to the small group I briefly eyed the two guys before turning to Song. "I need to talk to you."

The implication of course was that I needed to talk to her _in private_. She seemed to scrutinize my serious demeanor which I'll admit was out of character for me at school. "Sure," she said slowly before turning to the two others with her. "You guys mind giving us a bit of privacy?"

It wasn't _really_ a request. They took the hint and wandered off, presumably to get ready for classes which were set to start in less than ten minutes. Song turned to me, her expression curious if a little guarded.

"Heard you ducked out of school early yesterday," she said to me. "Hope you don't mind me saying but that really doesn't seem like you."

"Do you really know me that well already?" I asked, a little bit amused that she had me pegged so right.

"I'd like to think I've gotten to know a bit about you by now."

"Fair enough," I said. After a brief pause I decided to add, "I had some unexpected business to take care of."

"ABB Business?" she asked with a raised brow.

I decided to ignore that. "I need to talk to Edward Tan again today. The sooner the better. Do you know where I can find him?"

Her expression showed brief surprise before schooling itself back to neutrality. "You might not get a chance to talk to him today."

I frowned at that. "What do you mean?"

"He's usually one of the first people in as soon as they unlock the gates, spends the whole time studying over there before classes," she says motioning at some picnic style tables set up outside. "Haven't seen him today so far. I'm guessing that means he might not be coming to school today for some reason."

I paused to think that over and realized that would make sense. Edward was probably even more unlikely than me to miss classes but yesterday had to have been an extremely trying day for him and his family. It wasn't too surprising that he would take a day off. Maybe it made sense for him to stay home with his sister that day but that turned out to be awfully inconvenient for me.

"Do you think anyone knows his address?" I asked Song after considering a few different options.

This time her expression showed absolute shock before she smoothed it back to something vaguely apathetic. She looked at me and tapped her lips as she seemed to consider how to answer my question. "We have a contact in administration," she said cautiously. "If you want I could find out for you. Probably won't be able to get the info to you before lunchtime though."

 _We have people in the school administration?_ Something to think about later. I agreed almost instantly to her proposal. I didn't want this issue to wait any longer than it had to. "Do it," I said.

She just nodded in acknowledgment as the warning bell for classes went off. We went our separate ways after that. Song might not have been a friend per se but I was starting to appreciate her better qualities more and more.

Classes passed more or less in a blur as I failed to pay attention beyond what was required for basic note taking. Thankfully it didn't feel like too terribly long before classes came and went and lunch finally arrived. Song found as soon as I exited my classroom and discreetly slipped a folded up scrap of paper into my hand.

"There you go," she said in a low voice before falling in step next to me.

"Thanks," I said slipping the piece of paper into my pocket. After a moment's deliberation I added, "I owe you one."

Song gave me a thin but genuine looking smile. "It's no big. Just keep me in mind when you start moving up in the world."

"Right," I said, giving Song a thoughtful look. If... _if_ I was going to stay involved with ABB operations it wouldn't be a bad idea to start getting some capable people firmly on my side.

In the end I decided to leave school again during lunch to go find Edward even though part of me felt almost ill for cutting classes two days in a row. I just couldn't justify to myself sitting still in a classroom when I could have been working on the problem of shutting down all those vile and heinous sex operations run by the ABB. Gathering my stuff I left Winslow already plotting the best fastest route for me to take on my phone.

ɲɲɲ The Art of War ɳɳɳ

The information Song had given included the Tan's home phone number. I'd debated calling ahead of time which would have been polite but decided against it. The thing is I _needed_ Edward's help, right now he was the only plan I had that might possibly work. Maybe it was a long shot but it was much better than no shot at all. It would be much harder for him to say no to my face than over the phone. It was much easier to ask forgiveness than permission and all that jazz.

The apartment building was in a bad part of town, so much so that I would have been a bit leery of walking around even in broad daylight if I didn't have my powers. The entrance to the apartments was barred by a heavy metal gate which thankfully seemed to be kept unlocked during the day. I let myself inside without any problems.

The apartment complex was basically one large courtyard with the surrounding buildings having their apartment doors all facing the open space. I saw a few people around, all of them Asian... which really was no surprise since this was well known to be an Asian neighborhood. I nodded to a few people politely (who looked at me suspiciously) before making my way to the third floor of one of the buildings.

When I got to apartment 311 I hesitated before shoring up my courage and knocking firmly. The walls and doors were thin so I heard some voices inside say something in Mandarin before someone started moving towards the front entrance. An older middle aged woman opened the door slightly and peered at me though the crack. She didn't say anything and didn't look particularly friendly.

It had been a while so my Mandarin was rusty but I thought it might make a good impression. _"Hello Ma'am. I'm looking for Edward, I am a classmate of his. Is he at home by any chance?"_

The woman peered at me suspiciously for a few moments, long enough that it started to make me uncomfortable. Then her face seemed to light up in realization. _"Are you that girl who helped get my daughter back from those animals yesterday?"_

I fidgeted a little, for some reason feeling uncomfortable by the acknowledgment. _"Yes Ma'am. That was me."_

Her grim face became much more open and friendly at hearing that. _"You have my eternal thanks dear. For a few hours there we were afraid we would never see my daughter again."_

" _Ugh... it was no, no problem really,"_ I said feeling incredibly awkward at the praise.

" _Where are my manners? Of course you can speak to Edward. Come in,"_ she said before opening the door and turning back to yell inside the apartment. _"Edward! You have a visitor!"_

I followed the woman who I assumed was Edward's mother into their small living room. Everything looked second hand but it was neat, clean and well cared for. It had a nice lived in feel to it I hadn't been expecting.

" _Would you like some tea or something else to drink dear?"_ the woman asked.

I shook my head. _"No thank you Ma'am. I'm really in something of a rush. I just need to speak to your son briefly and then I'll be on my way."_ I knew that refusing could come across as insulting but I honestly didn't want to linger longer than was necessary.

The woman thankfully just waved it off. _"That's fine. I'll be in the kitchen should you change your mind."_

" _Thank you,"_ I said before she wondered off back to the kitchen.

Moments later Edward came into the living room, all six feet of skinny gangly teen in all his glory. I wish I could have photographed the look of shock on his face when he saw me standing in the middle of his living room. If his mouth had stayed open any longer he would have started catching flies.

"Hello Edward," I said, trying to hide my amusement at his reaction.

The sound of my voice finally seemed to snap him out of it. "K-Kat! Wha-...what are you doing here?!"

There was really no sense beating around the bush. I looked him right in the eye and tried to convey how deadly serious I was. "I need your help."

At my words Edward once again looked surprised. "You do?" he asked sounding a little nervous. Then with a certainty that surprised me he nodded vigorously and said, "Yes, of course. Anything you need from me is fine. I'll be more than happy to help."

I almost breathed a sigh of relief. So far so good. "Come on," I said tilting my head towards the front door, "let's step outside to talk." This wasn't exactly something I wanted mother Tan or anyone else overhearing if they didn't have to.

We stepped outside the apartment and I made my self comfortable by leaning against the concrete railing that overlooked the courtyard while Edward held himself more nervously.

"So..." began Edward. It was easy to tell that he was either intimidated by me or just not really used to talking to people. Or both. "What do you need my help with?"

"I need your brains basically," I said to him. Curiously Edward almost seemed to sag in relief at hearing that. It made me wonder what sort of things I might need help with had been running through his mind.

"My brains. Yeah," he said nodding enthusiastically. "I'm good at that. I can definitely do that. That's the one thing I'm really good at actually."

To tell the truth I was relieved that everything was going this smoothly. Maybe a bit of good karma was ripening for me. I gave him a brief smile before it faded away. With my current good luck in mind there was something I'd almost morbidly wanted to know since yesterday. Trying not to feel awkward and hoping my good karma would hold I asked something that had been bothering me.

"So... your sister," I began quietly.

"Yeah?" he asked, seemingly puzzled by the sudden change in topic.

"We weren't..." I began delicately, trying to communicate what I was asking through my eyes. "We weren't too late were we?"

He seemed confused for a second before his eyes widened when he realized what I was asking. His expression turned grim, and it wasn't a look that really suited him. "No. She overheard them saying they would start "breaking her in" that evening but no one did... that to her. She said some guys got handsy with her before locking her in a cell but that's it."

I let out a tense breath that I had been holding, genuinely relieved to hear that. The look of appreciation and almost hero worship Edward gave me however made me extremely uncomfortable. I didn't think I deserved that kind of sentiment.

"Good. I'm glad," I said stiffly.

"So uh, what do you need my help with?" asked Edward when the pause between us started to get awkward.

 _Good. Business is better._ "I can't really talk about it here... and I think we'll need to do a bit of research. I was thinking we could go to the library."

Edward paused before nodding at that. "Okay, no problem. Let me put something else on, tell my mom and then we'll go."

"Sure," I told him with a smile. "I'll just wait for you h-"

We were interrupted by the door to Edward's apartment suddenly being thrown open. I blinked in surprise as Gina stepped out, dressed in shorts and in all her blue haired glory. The look of anger on her face was completely unexpected.

"I'm not letting my brother go anywhere alone with you," she said to me, voice hostile and hot as she crossed her arms under her breasts.

"What? Why not?" I blurted defensively without really thinking about it. Part of me absently realized that she must have been listening to us at the door.

"You're with _them,_ " Gina said with acid in the tone. "With the ABB. I don't know what you're trying to drag my brother into but it can't be anything good."

I just stood there with my mouth open in surprise, feeling rather shocked and indignant at the venom of her accusation. Didn't I get any credit for saving her? Wait. Did she actually know I was the one who saved her? She must have known. Maybe.

Before I could think of a reply Edward came to my defense. "I asked Kat for her help and she got you out of that place, dropping everything to help as soon as she heard. I owe her. _We_ owe her. If she's asking for my help then I'm sure as heck going to give it to her."

Ugh, there was that awkward feeling again at hearing that sort of praise directed at me.

"And what does she need your help with exactly?" Gina shot right back. "Money laundering? Figuring out how to sell more drugs to middle schoolers?" Gina whirled on me, her expression livid. The girl was proving herself to be quite the firebrand. "Well? What kind of crime that you can't talk about here are you trying to get my brother mixed up with?"

Part of me admired Gina for her fire that apparently hadn't been diminished even after almost becoming a sex slave the day before. Part of me wanted to punch her in the face for coming in and making this unnecessary difficult at the last second. It was commendable that she wanted to protect her brother but she was completely off the mark on this one. After a brief internal debate I figured there was no harm in telling her the truth.

"I'm trying to shut down The Farm," I told her seriously. That seemed to take the wind out of her sails as she looked at me with barely disguised surprise and disbelief. I pressed on. "There is a way to get them to shut it down, I just need some help figuring some stuff out. Yes it's going to be kind of shady," I admitted, "but it's for a good cause. And no one ever has to know that he was involved."

"You're really trying to shut down that place," cut in Edward, looking at me wide eyed. It was more of a statement than a question but I replied anyway.

"Yeah," I said a bit grimly. "I want that place shut down for a number of reasons. Not the least of which is how inexcusable that kind of thing is."

My eyes slid back to Gina. I could see her hesitate. She was weighing the options in her mind, looking distrustful. Eventually she bit her lip and seemed to come to a decision. "Fine," she said, "but I'm coming with you."

Both me and Edward protested that at the same time.

"I don-"

"That's n-"

"My brother may be a genius but he can be too naiive for his own good," Gina said loudly cutting the both of us off. "Either I go with him or he doesn't go at all. That's final."

Edward started sputtering but Gina had her eyes set firmly on me. Part of me wanted to give her a good thrashing and part of me was attracted by her spunkiness. I couldn't decide whether to be impressed by her giant brass balls or be annoyed by her attitude.

In the end I could either get her on my side or leave her on her own to cause trouble. If she thought I was trying to make her brother into a gangbanger I didn't doubt that she would continue to make herself a thorn in my side. Besides I was really trying to do something good here. Leaving someone with the mistaken impression that I was up to some nefarious end didn't sit well with me.

"Fine," I said before taking a step closer to her and looking her right in the eye. "Just as long as you understand it's in your own best interest to keep everything you hear to yourself."

She swallowed before giving a sharp nod. "Fine."

"Okay then," I said with a sudden cheery smile. "Let's be off then."

Minutes later we were on our way.

~~~The Art of War~~~

Sometime later the three of us were sitting at a table in a quiet back corner of the library. A quick look around showed that there was no one nearby. Edward looked resolute and maybe a little excited while Gina had her arms crossed with a look of deep skepticism on her face. Taking a deep breath I started to explain the situation.

Without going into too many details I laid out how "the ABB leadership" had agreed to shut down The Farm and all operations like it if I could come up with an equal or greater revenue stream. I rattled off the relevant numbers of how much this new source of revenue would need to pull in every month in order for this to go through. At the end of my explanation Gina looked faintly disgusted and unsettled while Edward was staring off in the distance looking deeply thoughtful. Now that he had an intellectual problem to tackle all of a sudden Edward looked about a hundred times more confident than he usually did with his habitual awkwardness.

"Do you have any ideas?" I asked him tentatively. "I've given the situation some thought but haven't come up with anything. Especially since I want this to happen quickly. I don't want those places to be up and running any longer than they absolutely have to." Then I went on to give him a brief summary of all the ideas I'd had and the different problems I'd found with them.

After hearing me out Edward shook his head, still staring off in the distance and seemingly distracted. "No, the gangs have probably explored those avenues of traditional criminal activity very thoroughly since that is what they rely on day in and day out. Finding that much money from that avenue would be very difficult and requires information we don't have access to. Long term businesses, either legal or illegal, would also take a long time to give a return in those kinds of numbers not to mention the initial investment in capital that would be required."

I nodded, already having come to similar conclusions myself. "What should we do then?"

"We need..." Edward said before trailing off. "We need to think outside the box for a street gang. We need to think of expanding to places no one is making use of."

Gina was looking at her brother suspiciously. She was probably bothered by how easily he seemed to be going along with all this. Still when she spoke I could at least tell she was making the effort to be civil. "I know I wasn't brought along for my opinion but you should try to think of something that doesn't get people hurt."

"Ideally," I said dryly, though I wasn't so optimistic as to think we could find some kind of totally victimless crime to work with. I was willing to settle for something that didn't hurt people too badly, or at least something that didn't hurt people against their will if it did do a lot of harm. I didn't have a lot of problems with drugs as a concept for example because people had a choice, buying drugs wasn't something that was forced on them.

Still there was some niggling uncertainty about this course of action in the back of my mind. Did having looser standards for people getting hurt than was considered strictly 'heroic' make me a bad person? I couldn't answer that question with a hundred percent certainty and that bothered me more than I would have liked to admit. However in this case it seemed like a clear cut situation of 'the lesser of two evils'. Almost anything would be better than allowing something like the forced sex trade in the ABB to continue.

"So how are we going to do this?" I asked, sighing and running a hand through my hair.

Edward made some thoughtful noises and began to nod slowly to himself. "I have some ideas. I'll have to do some research to see which one of them might pan out though."

Thank goodness. At least one of us seemed to know what he was doing.

+++The Art of War+++

Over the next three or so hours Edward lost himself in 'the zone'. Before I honestly had not gotten the most flattering impression of him. He was awkward, gangly and though it makes me feel kind of shallow to say it not very attractive. However seeing him in his element I couldn't help but be a little bit impressed. He moved with focused purpose, moving through the stacks quickly searching for whatever book he needed, sitting and typing on the library computers as he searched for things online like he was on a mission. Edward was like a machine and the best thing that me and his sister could do was simply to stay out of his way.

Gina and I fetched a few books for him when he asked but for the most part just left him to his own devices and tried our best not to distract him. It honestly made me feel really useless but I tried to make myself feel better by thinking of it as delegating. That's what leaders were supposed to do right? Delegate responsibility? That thought helped but didn't completely erase the sting of not being able to actively contribute.

I tried to make some small talk with Gina but frankly neither of us were really in the mood. Eventually I just got on a computer and surfed the web for a couple of hours. I'd lost track of time looking up information about local capes when Gina came up and got my attention.

"Come on," she said, thankfully a bit less hostile towards me now than she had been at the beginning. "Eddie's ready for us."

"Oh. Sure," I said feeling excited and apprehensive. I logged off the computer and followed Gina to where Edward was waiting at the same table we had used before near the back of the library.

"So," I said as I sat down across from him, "what have you got for me Edward?"

"Extortion," he said simply. Sitting next to him Gina frowned.

"I hate to tell you this," I began cautiously, "but protection money is a pretty old hat for the gangs."

"Well... yes and no," Edward began, gearing up for along explanation. "That kind of 'protection money' model only really happens with small businesses at the street level. The gangs don't really shake down businesses from large companies like S-Mart, MicDonnalds or Republic Supermarkets. In general street gangs never make any money from large corporations because they just don't have enough leverage. Attacking such big stores draws too much attention and the companies can afford to hire enough security to make such tactics unappetizing."

"Okay that makes sense," I said thoughtfully. Still... "You want to shake down the larger businesses in the area?" I asked him a doubtfully. I honestly couldn't imagine someone walking into S-Mart and demanding money.

"No," he said shaking his head, "well, not like that. What I am proposing however is extorting one of these large companies in a different way. I think this should work since the ABB should already have some infrastructure in place and the experience in doing something similar. Dealing with illegal business and protection rackets should be similar enough for them to handle something like that. It isn't too far out of their realm of expertise basically. Once this gets going it should be easily sustainable for a number of years."

That was an angle I hadn't thought of. If I were to come up with something that the gang had absolutely no experience in managing it would be easy to botch it up. I nodded, impressed by how much it seemed he had put into this. "Go on."

"Okay so, basically big businesses and corporations often spend millions to tens of millions of dollars in basic research. Often this research doesn't pay off for years, sometimes it can be a decade or more before this investment starts showing any profits."

"Okay," I said not quite seeing where he was going with this.

"So if we can get a copy of all the research data one of these big companies is working on they would stand to lose years of effort and possibly tens of millions of dollars if we were to release that data to the public... that or if we gave that data over to their competitors. Much of their years of work would be rendered meaningless overnight because they wouldn't be able to patent their unfinished research. All of their competitors would be able to dissect everything they had been working on and gain the same advantages without having to put in any capital or research hours of their own. It would be a devastating blow to them not to mention a huge embarrassment. The fallout for the people in charge would be catastrophic."

Wow... Edward had been thinking of solving the problem on a much grander scope that I had even considered. Maybe that was the sort of thinking that was needed, even if it did seem risky. "Okay," I said starting to feel cautiously optimistic. "How would we even get our hands on their research?"

"A lot of companies keep all that information in one heavily protected central mainframe," said Edward, pushing his glasses up. "If we can get into their mainframe and steal their data it shouldn't be too hard to leverage the kind of money we need... we could probably get it in monthly payouts if you wanted to. If we go after the right target I estimate they would be willing to pay the big bucks for anywhere from three to seven years in order to keep their information confidential, depending on the kind of material we can get our hands on and what they have been working on. In the end these big corporations only care about dollars and cents. Paying us off would be a lot less expensive than all their research being dumped on the internet even if we were to ask for a good bit more than the minimum amount required to solve this problem. For them paying us off would simply be the most logical and cheapest way to get rid of the problem."

There was silence all around the table as we digested all this. It was certainly an ambitious plan, I'd give him that. In the end it was Gina who spoke first.

"Okay so... assuming you can somehow pull this off. Breaking into a major corporation and stealing all their data which I'm sure is heavily protected... Won't this also end up hurting a lot of people?" Gina said looking genuinely concerned. "Like, won't there be layoffs and stuff if they start having to pay blackmail?"

"No, that's part of the beauty of it," said Edward lightening up for the first time since we'd started this concersation. "Big companies already have plans and policies to account for corporate espionage and things like that, so to an extent this kind of thing is already factored into their budget. They also tend to have incredible amounts of collateral and fantastic lines of credit with all sorts of different financial institutions. Also these companies tend to measure their quarterly profits in the hundreds of millions of dollars if not more. So in the end the only real damage would probably be the shareholders seeing an extremely tiny drop in the value of their stocks."

Gina still only looked partially mollified though her glare did ease up a bit. However it seemed like her brother wasn't happy that his younger sister didn't fully approve. He hung his head, looking a little shamefaced.

"Look, this is the best plan I could come up with, both in it being feasible and in minimizing how much damage it does to people. There's probably some kind of better solution out there but right now I can't think of what it might be."

"It's a good plan," I said decisively, not wanting to see Edward get down on himself. I actually meant it too. Edward practically beamed at me while Gina looked resigned.

"I think it could work," said Edward enthusiastically, "assuming we can pull it off at all." He scratched his head awkwardly looking a little sheepish. "I have some rough ideas about that but... nothing really like a workable plan at the moment."

"That's fine," I said distractedly as my thoughts were already racing a mile a minute. This part I felt like I could really be a lot of help with. I was a cape after all and I would be lying if I said I wasn't excited at the prospect of using my powers in some kind of real life scenario that actually _mattered_. I briefly looked at Edward and Gina. I hadn't forgotten that Edward knew – or at the very least suspected – that I was a cape. Maybe Gina already had the same suspicions as well. It wouldn't take much for her to start thinking that I had been the masked cape who had led her out of the Peony Pavilion... assuming she hadn't heard her brother refer to the mystery masked cape as "Kat". Would it be worth it to "officially" bring them into my secret so they could help me plan this out? At the very least I felt like I would still need Edward's help and Gina – despite her Debbie Downer attitude – might be willing put that aside if it meant shutting down The Farm for good.

Shelving that thought for now I asked another question. "So what companies did you have in mind?"

"Just one actually," replied Edward, looking happy to resume talking about the plan he had concocted. "Given the nature of their research and how expensive it is I think it offers us the best shot. Also I managed to find some things online that suggest all their research is kept on one main server at all times. It's also convenient that their main headquarters are right here in Brockton Bay."

I nodded thoughtfully at that. "That sounds like it could work. What's the name of the company?"

"Medhall. I definitely think that's our best bet."


	8. Chapter 8

**==========  
Chapter 8  
==========**

"The tactical result of an engagement forms the base for new strategic decisions because victory or defeat in a battle changes the situation to such a degree that no human acumen is able to see beyond the first battle. In this sense one should understand Napoleon's saying: 'I have never had a plan of operations.'

Therefore no plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first contact with the main hostile force."

 _-Field Marshall Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke, German Military Strategist._

 **November 3, 2010**

It had been about a week and a half since I'd had that conversation with my father and had hatched together a plan with Edward and a bit of extra help from his sister. Objectively I knew that being on the cusp of executing our plan so soon was actually very impressive. Less than two weeks of prep to rip off a nationally leading pharmaceutical company? Not bad for my first foray into crime.

At the same time it had taken entirely too long. The whole issue with The Farm was something that I'd agonized over daily (pretty much hourly) since I'd first heard about it. Now was the time to finally put my money where my mouth was and do something about it.

I was _not_ going to mess this up.

"You've got to be, like, the most villainous looking cape I've _ever_ seen."

I glared at Gina who was sitting across for me in the back of the van. However since I was currently armored up the effect was kind of lost on her. Kind of hard to convincingly glare when you don't have eyes or facial muscles of any sort.

"Don't be like that Sis. Kuro is one of the _good_ guys," came Edward's earnest voice from the front of the van where he was driving.

Gina made a skeptical noise but couldn't seem to tear her eyes away from my armored form. Frankly I couldn't exactly blame her for her skepticism about me being one of the "good guys" seeing as I had roped her brother into driving me to a crime. I also couldn't fault her for her fascination with looking at me, her expression stuck somewhere in between wonder and mild distaste.

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat as I turned Edward's praise over in my mind. After rescuing his sister he was convinced that I was some kind of hero and he wouldn't change his tune even when I'd tried to dissuade him. I'm not sure how he still thought that when I was now getting him to drive me to a crime, thus making him an accessory to a felony.

Out of a sense of practicality (and being about 95% sure that he'd already known) I'd "officially" brought Edward in on my secret cape identity about a week ago. After that Edward had been even more eager to help. Somewhat reluctantly I planned out the rest of the heist with him. He'd even insisted on coming along and playing getaway driver even though he didn't have a license. As much as I was still somewhat uncomfortable involving him in all this I'm not sure I could have planned it all out even half as well without his help.

Gina for her part was a snoop, wouldn't stop mothering and following her brother around and had basically inserted herself uninvited wherever she could get away with it. When she overheard her brother talking about the particulars of the getaway plan she'd insisted on coming along. Since it would be impossible to hide it any longer I'd "unmasked" to her not even a half hour ago. Other than openly gawking at my armored form since then the pushy bluenette had actually handled the revelation really well.

"So…" said Gina loud enough for everyone in the van to hear. "Since we're going to be robbing Medhall now, I'm guessing you two figured out how to get around the whole 'computer security' issue in getting that data?"

If I'd had eyebrows I would have quirked one at that. "'We'?"

Gina pinked and crossed her arms, leveling a scowl at me. "Well knowing about all of this and not calling the cops is probably a crime already. Maybe I'm in on this whether I want to be or not."

"Nobody forced you to come," I pointed out.

Gina rolled her eyes and looked away, ceding the point. "You didn't answer my question. How are you going to get all that data?"

"With this," I said in my gravelly armored voice, patting a backpack that was sitting on the seat next to me. At Gina's quirked eyebrow I picked it up and took out the object inside. It looked like a football made of sleek, smooth metal.

"What is that?"

"Tinker tech hacking device," I said, turning it over in my hands to give her a better look. "Pretty simple stuff. Just plug it in and it will download everything on their servers in about five minutes. Which is good since I don't know much about computers beyond Google and playing the occasional historical RTS."

Gina looked intrigued despite herself as she examined the device. "That might do it," she muttered to herself before speaking louder. "Pretty cool. Where did you manage to get something like this?"

I shrugged. "Leet. Or Uber and Leet, since I got the impression that they always come as a pair."

Gina raised both eyebrows at that. "You know everyone thinks Leet is a hack, right?" she said. Wow, she actually sounded kind of concerned there.

I shrugged again. "Actually from what I've read and heard he makes some pretty amazing stuff. Mostly. But he said this would work. I trust them on that, mostly. They don't have any good reason to screw me over." It kinda went unsaid we would become rather unfriendly if they did. Not that I'd go out of my way to hunt them down but it didn't really pay to make enemies unnecessarily.

Gina looked skeptical but decided to move on. "How did you get in contact with them anyway?"

"I helped with that, actually," called Edward from upfront where he was driving.

"What?" said Gina in a voice tinged with worry and warning. "How do _you_ know a pair of supervillains?"

"I don't," Edward defended immediately. "I figured out what would get their attention online, that's all."

"Oh, so geek talk then?" asked Gina.

"Yup," said Edward, sounding a bit self-conscious.

"He set up the meeting and even helped negotiate the price a bit beforehand," I cut in, feeling a need to defend Edward. "He did great."

"Uhugh," said Gina before she turned back to me. "And how much did they make you pay?"

"Why?" I challenged her. "Worried about me?"

She rolled her eyes. "If you don't want to tell me then fine, geez."

In the end I didn't see any real harm in telling her. "Five grand and I agreed to participate in one of their upcoming 'shows'."

"What? You're going to be part of one of their dumbass videogame stunts? Really?" she asked, looking incredulous.

I shrugged. "After I showed them my armored form they wouldn't shut up about it."

"And how does a high school student just have five grand?"

"Trust me Gina… you don't want to know." As much as she disliked the ABB, she'd likely throw a huge hissy fit if she found out I got the cash from Lung. Not that I would be telling anyone that mind you.

The conversation died after that. Just as well too. A few minutes later Edward pulled into an abandoned parking lot and turned off the van.

We'd finally arrived at our destination.

Show time.

✦ ✦ ✦The Art of War ✦ ✦ ✦

We'd scouted my egress point days beforehand at my insistence. Three blocks away from the Medhall building Brockton Bay already gave way to the urban blight that characterized the majority of the city. It was easy enough to find an abandoned building with an empty parking lot. Somewhere far from security cameras and with easy access to an alley. Putting on the backpack with the football hacking device inside I slipped out of the van I'd requisitioned from the ABB and jogged down an alley. My armored body was black as the night and disappeared easily into the shadows.

I took a bit of time to zig-zag down dark alleys, avoiding the occasional indigent person, before heading in the direction of the business park the Medhall building was located in. Before long I arrived at my destination. Crouching next to an older building I took stock and looked out at my target.

The Medhall building stood like a shining beacon of prosperity in what was otherwise a dying city. It was an impressive, if not particularly exciting, corporate building. Everything around it was clean and well lit, the roads and decorative foliage immaculately maintained. Across the street from the building was even an artificial lake with a fountain shooting up water in the middle. It looked like the sort of place that was safe from crime and violence unlike the majority of the rest of the city.

It was also a major economic driver in Brockton Bay. One of the very few that were left. Which in turn translated to plenty of police protection. Also PRT and Protectorate protection, if necessary. Which meant there was a very limited window in which to pull this off once the alarms went off.

Twenty minutes. Once again Edward's research had come through. A PRT and Protectorate response would arrive at this location approximately twenty minutes after being alerted of a situation involving a cape. Which meant I needed to be in and gone in that time.

Those twenty minutes were my window. I was confident I could do it. Which was good, since I needed a lot of confidence to even try something as crazy as this. There was no way I could hope to sneak into the Medhall building undetected. While I might be able to pull off being somewhat stealthy I wouldn't even know how to begin bypassing all of that security. Such an approach would have been impossible.

No. The plan was to play to my strengths. Bust in. Get the data. Bust out. I pulled a cheap watch I'd bought earlier that day out of my backpack and tied it around my wrist. Fiddling with the thing I set the chronometer.

This was it. Twenty minutes.

Go… _now!_

With a thought I lowered my mass to as low as I could without shooting myself off into the air while running. Coupled with my enhanced strength I took off like a shot from where I had been hiding. In seconds I was crossing the well-lit parking lot at speeds I was sure no regular human could ever have hoped to match. I couldn't be sure if anyone spotted me but I had to operate under the assumption that I had already been seen.

Angling myself to face the building head on I looked up and briefly counted windows to verify where it was that I was going. Careful not to lower my mass so much that I'd send myself shooting over the building I crouched a little mid-run and _jumped_ , my powerful legs sending my slight mass hurling in a dizzying arc into the air.

When I was mere feet away from the face of the building I increased my mass some and tensed my clawed fingers, driving my talons straight into the outer wall of the building. My fingers dug in a good half inch without any trouble, easily more than enough for what I needed to do. From a little bit of testing I knew I could move very fast this way.

Having counted the windows as I had jumped up I knew I was now hanging at the level of the tenth floor. My target was on the twentieth. Checking again to make sure I was positioned horizontally where I needed to be on the building I began to climb. Hand over hand, claws digging into the hard side of the building, I quickly made my way up like some particularly large black gecko. I was a bit surprised by how easy it was. I supposed having super strength while being able to decide how much you want to weigh made lifting your own body weight pretty much a laughable obstacle.

When I reached the twentieth floor, if the alarms hadn't already been activated, they sure as heck would be now. With one clawed hand I punched the window. The angle was awkward but the glass shattered in one blow anyway. Instantly a loud alarm started blaring from inside the building and red lights started going off in the hallway. Quick and agile as a cat I pulled myself inside and sprinted for the place where I knew my target would waiting.

Conveniently the central mainframe was only five doors down the hallway I had entered after breaking in through the window. The door to the central mainframe was steel and surprisingly strong. It took me half a dozen blows just to deform the thick door enough to get my hands around it. After that peeling it open was fairly easy by comparison. With the alarms blaring and the red lights going off I entered the room that had the information I was looking for.

It was more or less what you would have expected, a dark room filled with computer banks and a bunch of other computer stuff I didn't know much about. Taking off my backpack I approached the closest of the towers. Leet had assured me that as long as I just plugged it into any of the machines in here the football would do all the rest. Pushing a small discreet button the football opened up, showing a small screen and giving me access to several wires.

I pulled out what looked like thee supped up USB cables and plugged them into the computer bank. Seconds later the screen on the football turned on and began to display a "percent complete" bar. I hadn't really doubted Uber and Leet per se, but it was a relief to see that the football was actually working.

Now came the worst part. Waiting while the damn thing did what it needed to do.

With nothing better to do I went and stood outside in the hall. I'd talked this over with Edward and this seemed like the best place to wait. The reason why became obvious just a minute later.

I heard a "ding" of the elevator opening around the corner and moments later two security guards came practically running around the corner. I stood tall and crossed my arms, trying to look intimidating. As soon as the two men turned the corner and saw me they skid to a stop, an almost comical look surprise and shock on their faces. Almost right away I could scent their fear begin to fill the hallway along with their nervousness and their anxiety. One of the men touched the gun at his hip seemingly debating whether he should draw it. I looked pointedly at the gun before lifting my head and looking at him. Then I shook my head slowly… before lashing out and easily putting my fist through a wall.

Thankfully these two security guards were smart. Grabbing each other by the shirt they each half pulled the other back the way they had come from. If I'd had a nose to wrinkle I would have. I was almost certain one of the guards had peed themselves a little. Sometimes having hyper enhanced senses wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

Still. If there was _any_ doubt that a cape was involved it went out the window now. It had all been accounted for in the plan but still. It was unnerving to know that a PRT and Protectorate response was almost certainly now on the way. While the thought of a fight didn't particularly worry me I wasn't eager to end up in a slugging match with a bunch of heroes trying to do their job.

I went back inside the server room and checked the progress of the football. Fifty percent complete. I checked my watch. Ten minutes since I'd started the timer. Five minutes since the football had started downloading. Leet had said the machine would only take five minutes to download all the data and here we were five minutes later, only about halfway done with the download. Motherfucker. _Next time I see Leet I'm going to kick that kid's scrawny little ass._

The next five or so minutes were hell as I anxiously paced the server room and kept poking my head out into the hall as I waited for the download to complete. The alarm was blaring the whole time irritating my sensitive hearing and further trying my patience. After what felt like an eternity (but was really only a bit over five additional minutes) the download finally completed. Bingo. My heart caught in my throat as I saw my objective completed… metaphorically speaking that is, because I was fairly certain I didn't actually have a heart while in my armored form.

Unplugging the football I locked it again properly and put it back in my backpack. Putting the backpack on my back I looked at my watch. Sixteen minutes gone. Four minutes at least until the Protectorate arrived. I breathed a (metaphorical) sight of relief. Looked like I was going to make it after all.

With escape in mind and already feeling relieved that the plan had gone so well in spite of the delays I lowered my mass and ran towards the window. Taking a running leap I jumped out of the twentieth story without a shred of fear. I'd done it. Just a few more minutes and I would be safe back at the van.

Suddenly there was the sound of something large and fast cutting through the air. My downward momentum stopped and I felt a strong pressure on my upper arm keeping me aloft. Suddenly there was another presence next to me… holding me and hovering about fifteen feet up in the air. Feeling very surprised at this sudden turn of events I turned my head to see who was there.

It was a young woman. A teenager. Tall, well built, platinum blonde, and smirking at me in a very cocky and superior way. She wore a one piece dress with a spiked tiara across her brow. The white, gold, and red color scheme along with the fact that she wore no mask clued me in that she must have been from "New Wave", that local hero team that didn't keep their identities a secret.

It was also the wrong venue to think this, and definitely not the time, but she was kind of hot. I'd always dated guys but I had always had a special kind of appreciation for blondes. Not girls in general, just blondes. I was weird like that.

It took me a few seconds to remember the members of that team. I'd been reading about them just a couple of days ago. Who was this girl again?

"Laserdream?" I asked.

The girl's self-satisfied smirk turned into a scowl.

"Glory Girl!"

↗ ↗ ↗The Art of War ↙ ↙ ↙

After the initial shock of being plucked out of the air by some random flyer wore off, I began to feel irritated.

I had only a few minutes before the Protectorate and PRT were due to arrive. I really didn't have time to deal with some junior grade hero. One that, I could already tell, had kind of a bad attitude.

The scowling also made her look a great deal less attractive.

What were her powers again? She was the whole Alexandria package one. Right?

Well, whatever. I may have been new to my powers but there was one thing I absolutely knew for sure.

If it came down to a slugging match nobody could stop me.

"I recommend you go home," I said, deliberately pitching my voice to be more menacing. While it was normally deep and masculine sounding while transformed now it sounded like a downright unnatural growl to my ears.

Glory Girl twitched at the sound of my voice but her scent didn't change. "I don't think so, cre-"

I changed my mass in an instant, going as heavy as I could go. Glory Girl tried to hold on but the arm that she was holding on to slipped through her fingers. Falling, I looked down and saw that I was going to land on top of someone's car. Before I hit I reduced my weight to almost nothing, landing on top of the car with hardly more force than a bird would, leaving it completely unharmed.

Then Glory Girl crashed into me like a meteor from above. Where her fists collided against me hurt. Kinda. The both of us ended up punching through the ceiling and in the back seat of the car, with Glory Girl sprawled on top of me. I don't think she expected the roof of the car to give as easily as it did.

 _Shit,_ shit, shit! I could _not_ be fighting like this with another Brute. Not like this. The football with all the data in it was too valuable to risk like that. I could only hope that it wasn't broken already. If it wasn't I'd have to give Leet a big wet kiss next time I saw him. He'd insisted in making the computer football armored "since I was a Brute." Still even if that was the case I couldn't let this damn Barbie chick put it in any more danger.

Glory Girl pushed herself up from where she'd landed on top of me and brought her fist back to punch me in the face. I beat her to the punch. Making myself as light as possible I shot out my fist with all of my strength at her face, my hand moving with incredible speed as it was powered by my Brute strong muscles and had almost zero mass. Then in the last microsecond before my fist hit I increased the mass of my whole body to max.

My fist hit her face like a freight train going faster than a professional baseball pitch. She was launched out of the car like a bouncing missile, spinning ass over teakettle towards the Medhall building until she crashed through windows of the lobby. I froze for a second, momentarily startled by how far I'd punched her. Shit. I didn't kill her did I? I shrugged off my backpack and left it in the ruined car for the moment while I crawled out, jogging over to make sure she was okay.

Without warning a white blur came flying out of the lobby and hit me again. This time I managed to react quickly enough to increase my mass to the max before she hit. Glory Girl's charge pushed me backwards, and I stumbled, but still managed to stay on my feet. She went to pull away and I grabbed her wrists. I knew she was strong but so was I and since the fight had started I had only been getting stronger. Time to see who could out muscle who.

"Let go of me!" Glory Girl yelled at me, her face contorted anger and concentration. She tried to fly off but I held on as she struggled. It was almost like having a fish on a line, bobbing up and down but never able to get away. If I'd had a mouth I'd have smiled.

"Looks like I'm stronger," I taunted her.

Her answer to that was to execute a fairly impressive feat of flexibility and kick me in the face.

It wasn't so much the pain as the shock that caused me to let go. Glory Girl took the opening and started swinging at me. I took another fist to the head before I recovered enough to start fighting back.

When we started swinging at each other it became clear really quickly that I held the advantage. First of all Glory Girl fought like a brawler, all fury and wild swings. I'd dabbled in martial arts for most of my life so I knew enough to take advantage of that. I was also stronger than her, more immovable, and getting stronger all the time. After a few quick exchanges I managed to land a punishing blow to her jaw before grabbing her head and driving her face into the pavement. Hard.

 _Is that enough to put her down? I need to get the hell out of here._

In fact it wasn't enough to put her down. With the aid of her flight Glory Girl managed to squirm out of my grip and take to the skies. She stopped about twenty feet above me looking down on me with rage. Damn it. She didn't even look like she had a scuff on her. Did nothing inconvenience this girl?

I saw her glance at the car she'd ruined by dive bombing into me before shooting off in that direction. My heart caught in my throat as I thought she was going after my backpack. _No, no! Shit!_

It turned out that wasn't her intent _at all_. Instead she lifted the car, got under it and took it with her into the skies. I looked on incredulously as she rose to hover over my head, wielding the vehicle overhead like a threat.

"Give it up, creep," she said hotly. "Or I'm going to smash you flat."

That's when we were both distracted by squealing tires and the sound of some type of muscle car racing towards us from the road.

A late model mustang tore into the parking lot, slamming the breaks and skidding to a stop not twenty feet from the two of us. Both Glory Girl and I stopped staring each other down long enough to see what this unexpected intruder was all about. I saw the heroine stiffen as she saw the three people that stepped out of the car. Going by what they were wearing it was completely obvious they were Empire 88 capes.

 _Empire capes? Here? What the hell?!_

The three of them seized us up before taking their time and swaggering towards us. I took the time to see if I could identify them. Turns out I actually remembered two out of three of them from my studies of Brockton Bay capes. One of them was a man wearing vaguely medieval armor and wielding a spear which he extended to be nearly ten feet long. It looked hella impractical. That one was Crusader. The other was a shirtless man wearing a stylized metal tiger mask. That made it easy enough to remember his name. Stormtiger. The last member was a slender female with a buzz cut and wearing cage mask. She had a pair of kamas strapped to her belt. For the life of me I couldn't remember her name. It was on the tip of my tongue but it just wouldn't come to me.

"Hey Glory Hole," Stormtiger said to Glory Girl as he swaggered towards us like she wasn't holding a mangled car over her head. "Why don't you take a hike? The Empire's got no quarrel with you. The one that we want," he said menacingly before pointing a finger at me. "Is the bitch in black."

Glory Girl glared at him but didn't say anything right away. The indecision was clear as day on her face. Damn it. Why the hell was the Empire here looking for _me_? Did Medhall pay them for protection or something? Looking at Glory Girl, I got an idea. If she really was a hero maybe this world work.

"Hey Glory Girl," I said to her casually, folding my arms and turning my head to look at her. "I'm pretty sure at least two of these guys are wanted for murder while I'm just a petty thief. I'm definitely the lesser of two evils here. What do you say? Temporary truce?"

The Empire capes tensed at my words. Crusader started to summon ghostly images of himself while Stormtiger started to… pull the air in around him? That's right he was an aerokinetic. Shit.

"I wouldn't recommend that New Wave," Stormtiger said threateningly. "Got no quarrel with you. Be on your way. I won't ask again."

Glory Girl's lip turned up in disgust as she looked at Stormtiger. Then she turned to look at me. I tilted my head to the side. The blonde seemed to struggle with herself before letting out a very exhasperated and unhappy sigh.

"This isn't over between us," she practically spat at me.

"Wouldn't dream of it," I replied with inappropriate cheer.

"I'll take the flier," she said, looking at me challengeingly. Like she expected me to cut and run.

Shit. I really needed to get the hell out. The Protectorate would be here any minute. But…

"I'll take the other two," I said.

Stormtiger didn't wait, taking the initiative and shooting a torrent of compressed air in my direction. What felt like blades of wind cut across my body at all angels, some of them even putting shallow gashes in my armor. Almost instantly those gashes began to close up on their own.

Glory Girl dropped the car she was holding and launched herself at Crusader, who was now flying high above with three ghostly images of himself holding him up while a half dozen others moved to intercept Glory Girl. The Empire woman on the ground withdrew her kamas from her belt while Stormtiger began pointing at me with his hands.

In that moment I could have run. Those two weren't brutes, they couldn't have stopped me. I could have just gotten my bag with the data and hightailed it home. However two things stopped me.

One, I'd sort-of kind-of given my word to Glory Girl that I would take care of these guys. Even if I didn't know her I wasn't the type of person who liked to cheat and lie. I had said I'd do it because of that I wanted to follow through.

The second reason… well, the Empire were the main opposition my father faced. The Protectorate were on their way. If I took these two out, the Protectorate would scoop them up, and that would be two fewer capes that the Empire would have to fight my dad with. It would also be a public service. Most Empire capes that had been in for more than a few years were suspected of numerous murders.

Even as I made up my mind to fight them I felt Stormtiger doing something to the air around me. I could tell by the changing air pressure and by the smell that he was… _pulling_ the air from around me. Pulling it away. What the hell was he doing? Then it hit me: he was trying to asphyxiate me. Clever.

Too bad for him I didn't need to breathe.

Lowering my mass I ran straight at Stormtiger in a sudden burst of speed, hoping to catch him by surprise. As soon as I was going at an extremely fast clip I upped my mass again and my inertia kept me going forward. Stormtiger tried to use his wind to stop me but my mass and my speed were simply too great. I could see his surprise at how his powers didn't even slow me down even as he tried to dive out of the way.

He was really fast. And agile. For a human. Unfortunately for him, my power made me considerably faster than a baseline human could really hope to match.

As I sped past him I reached him in mid-jump I slapped him on the shoulder. In hindsight I slapped him way too hard. I could feel his bones break and crunch under my hand like a gingerbread house. It wasn't just limited to his shoulder either. I could also feel his collar bone and part of his upper arm breaking. I winced. I'd broken my collar bone in the eighth grade. Most people didn't know this but a broken collar bone was just about the most debilitating painful injury you can get. Stormtiger fell to the ground, screaming in rage and pain like someone was murdering him.

I was so focused on him that I didn't even feel the woman coming up behind me. One of her kamas struck viciously at the back of my neck. The blade of her weapon snapped, flying off well away from us. I turned around just in time to catch a glimpse of the surprised look on her face before schooled her expression into something hostile and she discarded the hilt of her broken blade. Then she started circling me, slightly stooped over and clearly ready for more of a fight.

 _Really?_ Either she was very brave or very, very stupid.

I think she was trying to do something to me, as I could perceive… vibrations maybe? Something she was putting out. Whatever it was I don't think it did anything. I lunged at her, trying to grab her so I could quickly put an end to this.

To my surprise she nimbly dodged away while hitting me in the face with her kama. Huh. Obnoxious, but her weapon didn't even leave a mark on my armor. I rushed her again, trying one more time to grab her. Once again she managed an impressive pirouette out of the way, slashing her blade across my throat before darting out of range.

 _Okay. Enough of this._

Reducing my mass to almost nothing I charged her with a burst of speed. She tried to dodge but in the end she simply couldn't move much faster than a regular human even if she could see me coming. I ended up closing the distance and grabbing her by the shoulders carefully as to not smash her bones to kindling like I'd done with Stormtiger.

I didn't want to do any permanent damage, but I _did_ want to incapacitate her. After Stormtiger I wasn't feeling confident in hitting her. Fortunately I had an idea of something else I could try.

"Have a nice flight Rune," I said to her, feeling proud that I'd finally remembered her name.

Then I flung her into the air.

Okay, so I'd planned to throw her up maybe fifteen or twenty feet and hoped she'd break her ankle on the way down. Instead I accidentally threw her almost double that. When she came down I could hear bones in both her legs breaking. One of them was even a compound fracture with the bone sticking out through her pant leg. Begh. I almost wanted to apologize. The creepiest part was that she hardly even made a sound.

 _That Rune is one tough chick._

I looked back at Stormtiger who was only just now getting to his feet. _Oh, fuck it._ I ran up to him and grabbed his leg, squeezing it until I felt something break. Stormtiger screamed once again before passing out.

 _Man. I actually feel kinda about how much I fucked these two up._

Looking up I could see that the fight between Glory Girl and Crusader had moved some distance away. They were still going at it and seemed to be more or less evenly matched for the moment. _Good enough for me_. I'd held up my end of the bargain. Time to get the hell out of here.

Just then I heard sirens heading my way and the sound of… what sounded like the world's most muscular motorcycle. I knew from what I'd read that the motorcycle probably meant the local big cheese Protectorate hero, Armsmaster. Yeah. It was definitely time to go.

Lowering my mass enough to move quickly I rushed over to the ruined car and retrieved my backpack. A quick look inside showed me that the football looked undamaged. Good. As an afterthought before leaving I walked up to the Mustang the Empire capes had come in, reared back, and put my fist through the engine block. No need to give them even a chance to get away.

With that I took off fast enough to make a cheetah envious. I caught a glimpse of two PRT trucks and a giant futuristic motorcycle before I turned a corner into a dark alleyway. It took at least ten minutes before I was sure I wasn't being followed before I stopped running.

I took off my backpack, leaning against a wall as I giggled to myself now that the danger was passed. That had been exhilarating even if the plan had more or less gone to shit. Even better, now I had everything I needed in order to hopefully close the Farm down for good.

It might not have worked out perfectly. But on the balance, it had still been one hell of a good day.

-


	9. Chapter 8x - PHO Interlude

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 **Topic: Medhall Robbery And New Cape In Brockton Bay  
In: Boards ► News ► Events ►America**

 **EquatePhonePlaster**  
(Original Poster) (Veteran Member)  
Posted on November 4th, 2010:

Oh boy. So this is what we know so far:

At 10:14 PM last night the alarms went off at the Medhall corporate building indicating a break in. At 10:19 PM the security guards called the PRT and notified them that a possible Parahuman who was described as a "tall, black armored woman" was involved in the break in. At 10:40 PM two full squads of PRT troopers along with Armsmaster arrived at the scene. What they found were two veteran E88 capes (Stormtiger and Cricket) seriously injured and Glory Girl fighting Crusader (another E88 cape) in the sky. Stormtiger and Cricket were taken into custody by Armsmaster without problems. Crusader eventually managed to escape Glory Girl when the former took the fight deep into E88 territory where he eventually got some help from Krieg and Rune. The black armored cape that was reported was nowhere to be seen.

Sadly that is really all the information we have right now. What happened exactly? Who was the black armored cape? What were his/her powers? Keep posted, I'll update as more information comes to light.

EDIT: The PRT finally put out a statement. According to them the yet unnamed black armored cape scaled the side of the Medhall building somehow and broke into one of their secure computer servers. They believe some data was stolen but no details on what exactly. When the cape tried to escape she (we now know the new cape is female) was intercepted by Glory Girl. The two apparently fought for a few minutes until the three Empire capes (Stormtiger, Crusader and Cricket) showed up. The reason why these three Empire capes showed up is unknown. Apparently Glory Girl and the new cape set aside their differences in order to take on the three Nazis. The new cape seriously injured Stormtiger and Cricket before fleeing, while Glory Girl got into a protracted aerial fight with Crusader.

You can read the official press release here. [Link]

Unfortunately there were no details about the fight between the new cape and Glory Girl so we can only speculate as to her powers. Someone did manage to get a grainy picture of the cape from a distance. A word of warning, it's not very good, but it's the best we've got. [Link]

EDIT2: Well ladies and gentlemen it looks like we hit the motherload. Security footage from the Medhall building has been leaked showing pretty much all of the fighting that took place in front of their corporate office. You can see the new cape duking it out with Glory Girl and then see her take on Stormtiger and Cricket. Let's hear your thoughts on the new cape. Here is the link to the video. [Link]

 **(Showing page 10 of 28)**

► **Goldcup**  
Replied on November 4, 2010:  
Another villain in the Bay? Depressing but not surprising. One that looks like she's actually stronger and tougher than Glory Girl? That's... a bit of a butt clencher actually.

One of these days I'm going to leave the Bay and never come back. Every time another terrifying villain cape shows up I get that much closer to packing up my family and moving somewhere safer.

► **TinfoilCrusader**  
Replied on November 4, 2010:  
Goldcup I wouldn't blame you. Brockton Bay is a shithole and we all know it.

On a slightly more optimistic note, it looks like this new villain made her debut doing corporate espionage of all things. Let's hope she sticks to that instead of joining one of the gangs. If she can go toe to toe with GG then she might be tough enough to make it on her own.

So what you people think about that black armor? I don't think it looks like Tinkertech. Maybe a Changer or a Breaker state?

► **QueenHawt187**  
Replied on November 4, 2010:  
New cape was fucking vicious against those two E88 capes. Good riddance, I hope they get put away for a long time. My favorite part was seeing her throw Cricket up in the air. I made a GIF of it.

[Link]

 **AZN4EvaBLING**  
Replied on November 4, 2010:  
About damn time our girl showed up.

Listen up fools, cuz you heard it here first: the new cape is name Kuro and she's a new cape in the ABB. Rumors have been going around about her for WEEKS and she finally made her debut. Why else would she stop to thrash those Nazi bitches before taking off? She's sending the Empire a message. Lung is here and your days are numbered punk ass bitches.

► **Grapejoint**  
Replied on November 4, 2010:  
AZN4EvaBLING There is literally zero evidence of that. Stop making stuff up. I think **you** should be named TinfoilCrusader.

 **JacquesDerriere**  
Replied on November 4, 2010:  
I find it hilarious how the new cape didn't damage that car GG dropped her on... the GG proceeded to demolish it not two seconds later. Collateral Barbie is back it seems. I think she went like 4-5 months this time without gratuitous destruction of property.

Speaking of the new cape landing on that car, did you all notice how little she actually disturbed the vehicle? She didn't even put a dent in it. Even a small child would have damaged the roof of that car more. What was that all about? Another facet of her powers?

► **Night_Hunter**  
Replied on November 4, 2010:  
Wait so is her name Kuro? Really?

I looked it up. It's Japanese for "Black". If that really is her name then maybe there's something to that ABB theory?

Even if she's not the name kinda fits.

► **SpecificProtagonist**  
Replied on November 4, 2010:  
Night_Hunter That name is lame.

 **Frank1990**  
(Veteran Member)  
Replied on November 4, 2010:  
What I'd be concerned about is not just the obvious fact that she's a Brute but I'm thinking she might also deserve a Mover rating. Look back and focus on how fast she moves. It's enough to completely catch Cricket off guard at the end there, a cape who has enhanced reflexes. Any thoughts?

► **Mandingo**  
Replied on November 4, 2010:  
I've got a buddy who works for one of the ABB big wigs (I don't belong to the gang myself) and he says his boss was introduced to a cape matching this description weeks ago... by Lung! Take that as you will but I don't think my buddy was bullshitting me. As bad as Lung and Oni Lee are this cape isn't going to restrict herself to stealing corporate secrets you can believe that.

Though I suppose it does bring up the question: What could the ABB possibly want with some data from Medhall?

► **Grapejoint**  
Replied on November 4, 2010:  
Mandingo There is literally zero evidence of that. Seriously guys stop it with the baseless speculation about her being in the ABB, that's not funny. If she had been then she would have been wearing red and green. We don't need any more superpowered killers in this town.

 **End of Page. 1 - 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 - 28**

 **Topic: Unknown New Villain Cape (Placeholder Name of "Kuro") In: Boards ► Places ► America►BrocktonBay ► Capes ► Villains**

 **BFG9000**  
(Original Poster) (Veteran Member)  
Replied on November 4, 2010:

There has been a lot of talk about this new cape since she showed up yesterday. I'm creating this thread since no one has made a dedicated thread for her yet. The reason this new cape has become so popular since yesterday is because of some awesome security footage of her debut. [Link]

As for the placeholder name, some people on this forum have taken to calling her "Kuro". Whether this is her actual cape name or not is unknown at this point but it makes for a decent enough name until the new cape decides to set the record straight. Or not whatever the case may be.

Have at it Brocktonites. Discuss away.

 **(Showing page 2 of 40)**

► **SongLife**  
Replied on November 4, 2010:  
ABB. Straight up. It's fine if you guys want to be in denial. The truth will come out sooner rather than later.

► **Clockblocker (Verified Cape)**  
Replied on November 4, 2010:  
Damn I really hope not. Mostly because she looks like a real tough Brute. And who is the best hero at disabling Brutes in BB? Yours truly.

The potential of having to do that while dodging a teleporting suicide bomber and a raging flame dragon is not appealing. At all. Granted that would be a slim scenario but still. We don't need more capes joining up with the ABB.

► **JonSoldier1**  
Replied on November 4, 2010:  
You know, it's kinda easy to overlook in that black armor of doom, but Kuro actually has a real nice figure. Nice ass especially. You do stairs?

► **Glory Girl (VerifiedCape)**  
Replied on November 4, 2010:  
A few things:

-This chick is extremely durable and insanely strong.  
-She casually injured two capes seriously enough that Pancea had to intervene, otherwise they might not have made a full physical recovery.  
-She was treating my whole fight with her like a joke.

I'm calling it now, this chick is bad news. Next time I see her I'm going to finish the fight between us.

► **SpecificProtagonist**  
Replied on November 4, 2010:  
Clockblocker (Verified Cape) I'm sure you would be fine. All you have to do is touch her right?

GloryGirl (Verified Cape) I'll be rooting for you GG. I'm a huge fan. You can totally kick her ass.

► **HammerManFromTheBay**  
Replied on November 4, 2010:  
Wait, why was Pancea healing a couple of Nazis? Let them walk with a limp for the rest of their life. There are other people who are not human trash who could have used her time and energy.

 **KenTheKen**  
Replied on November 4, 2010:  
Just another dumb Brute. Dangerous but not that exciting. Still she definitely can take a beating. I've heard Stormtiger's air blades can cut a man to ribbons and I don't think they even put a scratch on her.

Also I don't know if it's true or not that she is one of them but the ABB is buzzing about this new cape. I'm thinking there might be something to Kuro being one of theirs.

 **SpecOpsPlatypus**  
Replied on November 4, 2010:  
KenTheKen Just another dumb Brute? Tell that to Alexandria. Or Siberian. Or Crawler. Or frikking LUNG who SLUGGED IT OUT WITH LEVIATHAN. Don't be so dismissive. A strong Brute is a big deal just like any other cape. Especially this cape who, let's face it, seemed to have the upper hand against GG.

► **Glory Girl (VerifiedCape)**  
Replied on November 4, 2010:  
She did not have the upper hand.

 **SpecificProtagonist**  
Replied on November 4, 2010:  
GloryGirl (Verified Cape) Of course she didn't!

 **End of Page. 1 - 2, 3, 4, 5 - 40**

-


	10. Chapter 8z - Kaiser Interlude

**November 18, 2010**

While outside he was the picture of composure in his seven thousand dollar suit, on the inside Max Anders was seething. He was currently well into the second hour of discussion regarding the recent theft of information with the Board of Directors of his company via video conference. While he was CEO and controlled nearly thirty percent of Medhall stock sometimes he had no choice but make certain decisions that affected the business jointly with the Board of Directors. While he would have loved nothing better than to be rid of them the nature of his mostly-legitimate business made that impossible.

"It seems we are at an impasse when it comes to changing each other's views on this manner Max," said Donald Connelly, one of the leading Board members from the… strictly civilian section of their business. He neither knew and Max suspected would not care to know about the Empire and Gesellschaft majority control of the company. At the end of the day the man only cared about risk, projections and the bottom line.

"I'm inclined to agree with Connelly on this Anders. No one is going to change their position at this point. It's time we took a vote on the matter," said Abelard Weber. Max turned to look at him and had to fight to keep a sneer off his face. Abelard Weber sat on the Board and was usually the spokesperson for Gesellschaft interests in his company. On most things they saw eye to eye and, together with Max, held enough of a majority to push through all decisions.

At the end of the day however the Gesellschaft only cared about Medhall and the Empire in so far as they kept the money flowing. Any other concerns tended to be a… more distant consideration for their sponsors in Europe. Today Max was being unpleasantly reminded of that fact.

"Gentlemen, the course being considered here will only invite further acts of extortion and industrial espionage. To give in to these… terrorists will only further embolden them in the future. Who is to say they will not come back next week and demand even more money? This course of action is ill advised and precarious at best," argued Max, looking at every one of his nine fellow members of the Board in the eye. Two of them were under his control. The rest he would have to sway.

"We've already heard all these arguments numerous times Max," said Weber, a tone of irritation creeping into his voice. "Enough. I call a motion for a vote."

"I second that motion," said Connelly.

"The motion has been entered into the record," said another of the Gesellschaft Board members, one with a thick German accent.

"Then gentlemen, please enter your votes."

Max watched with growing dread as seven lights came up green from the monitors he was facing. Only he and the two members he controlled voted in the negative. This time he couldn't help but glare at Weber and the other two Gesellschaft members who collectively owned a bit over thirty percent of the company. They were supposed to be his brothers, his ideological allies.

Apparently for all their chest thumping about the cause, in the end the Gesellscahft only really cared about dollars and cents. Pride be damned.

"Motion passed," said Donald Connelly. "Now let's vote on the issue at hand shall we? The criminal organization known as the ABB has our medical research data for seven drugs we are developing and is demanding a monthly payout to keep that information confidential. Everyone has heard all the arguments presented by both sides. Do we agree to the pay out or do we take our chances? Esteemed members of the Board, please make your votes known now."

Max Anders grit his teeth as the votes came in exactly as he expected. Four Nays, from his power block and one of the civilian Board members breaking from the rest. Six Ayes, including every single one of the three voting Gesellschaft members.

Fools. Cowards. Every last one of them.

"Well, I for one am glad reason prevailed in this instance," said Connelly with a grim little smile. "Not the most pleasant to have to pay off these hooligans but at the end of the day this shouldn't have any noticeable impact on our next quarterly earnings report. I think we can call that a win in these unfortunate circumstances. Heaven knows things would have been much worse if one of our competitors got a hold of that data."

 _A win?_ Max had to refrain himself from lashing out and putting his first through the televised face of that soft, greedy, pride-less worm.

"Of course," said Weber, addressing everyone. "In the end the only purpose of Medhall is to keep up a healthy quarterly growth. We must do everything in our power to ensure that remains the case." Weber gave Max in particular a meaningful look when he said the last part.

"If that will be all gentlemen then our business is concluded," Max Anders said before turning off his feed. It was not procedure and it might ruffle some feathers but right then Max didn't give a damn. Rising from his seat he stormed from the conference room and headed for his office down the hall.

This was a humiliation. Not only had the damn chinks stolen from them but now the board was forcing him to pay them monthly for the favor. He could not remember the last time he had felt so betrayed, so disrespected. The only solace was the only a tiny number of people in his organization would ever know the totality of the blow he had just been dealt.

There would be a reckoning for this.

[][][]The Art of War[][][]

Far from his financial seat of power in the Medhall building Max Anders, now dressed in the armor he created for himself as Kaiser, entered a warehouse-style building that had been converted into a gathering place for the elite of his Empire. People stood up from where they were seated when they saw him. Flanked by Fenja and Menja he made for an impressive sight in his gleaming steel armor and his elaborate crown of blades as he cut towards his destination. All eyes were on him, as they should be. The people gathered here knew they had all been summoned for a reason. It was time for Kaiser to tell them of their new mission.

Without looking at anyone Kaiser walked over to a raised dais which held an impressively large metal throne that he had created himself. People stood and watched him anxiously. Lieutenants, capes, everyone that truly mattered in his organization. They had all come when he'd summoned them. He needed them here to hear what he had to say.

Standing next to his throne and standing in the commanding fashion his father had shown him Kaiser made them wait in silence until the tension in the room rose to a fever pitch. He was in his environment. This is what he was the best at. When he felt the moment was finally right Kaiser began to speak.

"My brothers," he said in a voice designed to project as he began his speech. "For years now our Empire has tolerated an uneasy truce in this city. A truce that, while necessary, had been distasteful for all of us. The truce has been uneasy because it has been with degenerates who do nothing but spread their sloth, their depravity and their filth across this fair city that we have vowed to protect. This fair city that we have vowed to save."

Kaiser let his words hang in the air while he gauged the mood in the room. With a few sentences he could see he had grabbed their attention. Anger was being stoked while they clung to his every word. Satisfied Kaiser pressed on.

"I am, of course, talking about the blight known as the ABB. Lung is nothing but a mad beast. Mad, but powerful. My strategy has been to gather the strength of our people while the dragon did nothing but sit on top of his perceived treasure, doing nothing with his power but occasionally brutalizing the communities of good, decent, hardworking people. If we struck before we were ready we may have risked disaster. However this was not I situation that I, nor anyone else here, would have been satisfied to leave alone forever,"

"Well my brothers I am here to tell you now: The Empire is now ready to face that rabid animal and take from him what should have been ours all along!"

Cheers went up from one or two people at first, and in moments the whole warehouse was roaring with their approval. Kaiser basked in their adulation. The Empire had grown stronger while Lung had stagnated. They had more money, more guns, more equipment, more manpower. They had everything they needed to do this. It was about time someone stepped up and took that dragon down a peg or two.

"The stalemate between the Empire and the ABB had gone on for too long. When all is said and done the Empire will be larger, stronger, and with more of the good people in this city living under our protection. I tell you now my brothers… be ready for a righteous war. Because we will bring righteous war to the subhuman criminals who dare infest our fair city. So prepare yourselves. From here on, we march towards victory!"

The crowd erupted in fresh cheers, loud enough to shake the building they were in. While outwardly he was pleased on the inside his mind couldn't help but think of what he would do next. First he would need to free Cricket and Stormtiger. Then he would need to start taking ABB territory in such a way that it would be impossible for Lung and Oni Lee to effectively respond. Finally he would have to make an example of this new cape that had dared to steal from him and humiliate him. That new cape that was almost certainly working for the ABB. This… Kuro.

If need be he would even hire outside help. It was time to cut the legs out from the ABB. When the smoke cleared and the war ended Kaiser intended to make sure he was the one who came out on top.

Whatever the cost.

-


	11. Chapter 9

**The Art of War (Worm AU)**

**==========  
Chapter 9  
==========**

"The fates lead the willing, and drag the unwilling."

- _Lucius Annaeus Seneca._

 **November 21, 2010**

The Farm was shut down.

We celebrated with nachos and pizza.

I'd trusted my father when he said he'd do it. Gina hadn't just take my word for it though. She's kept her ear to the ground in the community. When girls who had been taken started turning up it seemed she'd finally been one hundred percent convinced of my good intentions.

The girls who had been released however had all been too scared to tell anyone what had happened to them. Not ideal, though more or less what I had expected. At least hopefully now that they were back with their families they could begin to heal. The ones who had families anyway. Assuming their families took them back.

It wasn't a perfect solution but it was still a good thing that we did. Crime was one thing but there was such a thing as a line. I could only pray there was nothing else as bad as The Farm in the ABB and I debated with myself if I should make an effort to find out. The truth was… I didn't want my image of my father shaken any further if I found even more skeletons in his closet.

I'd only had alcohol twice in my life. Right then and there I was contemplating what a shot of vodka would taste like.

"Penny for your thoughts Kat?" asked Gina around a mouthful of chips.

The Tan siblings, Edward and Gina, were both seated on the couch in my apartment living room while I had taken possession of the love seat. Some brainless Aleph movie about capes was playing on my too-large television while we stuffed ourselves with junk food and soda. I'd invited them over to celebrate and because… well, after a month and a half in Brockton Bay they were the only people I had that I considered friends. With the two of them I at least knew for sure they weren't being friendly with me out of a desire to get in good with the gang.

"Wondering if alcohol or drugs even have any effect on me anymore," I commented, sipping on a cherry soda.

"Why wouldn't they?" asked Gina.

"I heal really really fast. Anything I take would be broken down in seconds. Probably," I said with a shrug.

Gina thought about it for a moment. "That would suck," she concluded.

"I hope you're not planning on testing that theory out anytime soon. With the drugs I mean," Edward said, a note of worry in his tone.

I huffed a little bit in laughter at that. "Naw. The Fukunagas raised me better than that. Scared me stiff with horror stories about drugs since I was a kid. I've never even tried weed and don't ever plan to."

"Who are the Fukunagas?" asked Edward, his interest obviously piqued.

I smiled a little as I remembered my time with them. "The Fukunagas are this nice older Japanese couple that took me in and raised me for the last five years. Conservative and strict but kind and loving. They never had kids of their own so I think they started thinking of me as theirs. Kami knows that's probably the only reason they put up with me when I drove them completely crazy from time to time."

"Drove them crazy?" said Edward. "No offence but I have a hard time picturing you as the misbehaving type."

Gina snorted at that. Yeah that was sort of a ridiculous comment to make now wasn't it? Wanted felon that I – or Kuro – was after the stunt we pulled.

I sipped on my bottle of cherry soda before replying to him. "You're right I've always been kind of the good girl type. Follow the rules. Get good grades. Do my chores on time. All of that good stuff. I've always been the model child people expected me to be," a smile tugged at the corner of my lips as I looked at the two of them. "Except for one thing."

"What?" asked Edward, looking metaphorically on the edge of his seat.

I grinned. "Boys. They could never keep me from going out with my friends and boyfriends. The Fukunagas thought that I should remain an unspoiled shrine maiden until I was thirty or married. Drove them _nuts_."

Edward looked both fascinated and stricken. "Boyfriend _s_?"

Gina snorted.

"I meant whoever I was dating at the time. I'm not a slut," I said, acting overly dramatic by widening my eyes pitifully and bringing my hands to my chest as if I had been mortally offended by his words.

Edward went red. "I- I never meant to imply-"

"Sure you didn't," I said to him with a wink.

He seemed at a loss for words after that. Thankfully for him his sister decided to take up the conversation.

"If they were so nice how come you left?"

I winced a little at that though I tried my best to hide it. Truth was I'd had a pretty nice life in Tampa all things considered. Coming to Brockton Bay hadn't really been my choice at all.

After debating it I realized that these two already knew I was a cape. And were my co-conspirators in a felony. I could share some of what had happened.

"I triggered," I said, trying to seem nonchalant. "It was messy. Some people got hurt by accident. Then the local Protectorate was looking for me. That wasn't the type of thing the Fukunagas were really equipped to handle. So I got sent here."

Gina nodded slowly at that. "I think you mentioned that you have family here in the Bay, right?"

"Yeah," I said as I reached over to the table in front of the TV for another slice of pizza. "It's why I moved here."

"You mean cousins and such?"

"Naw. Just my dad."

Gina was looking increasingly suspicious now. "Is he the reason all the Azn bangers started treating you like a queen the second you showed up at the school?"

I stopped with the slice of pizza halfway to my mouth. Just like that I realized that the conversation had wandered into dangerous territory. Edward looked a little confused at the sudden tension in the room while Gina was intently scrutinizing me. I brought the slice of pizza to my mouth and took a bite to give me time to think.

I didn't want those two knowing that my father was Lung. Gina especially was still understandably twitchy and uncomfortable about my obvious connections to the ABB. If she found out that Lung was my dad… that might just be a bridge too far. Not to mention admitting something like that would essentially be outing him as well. No. I definitely could not tell them that my dad was the leader of the ABB.

Still, during my research on capes it had come up that similar powers ran in families. New Wave was proof of that. Most people wouldn't see an obvious connection between me and Lung on casual observation. However, I had explained my powers to Edward and Gina. I'd told them how my power scaled up, making me denser and stronger as I fought with no upper limit that I knew of. Would that be enough for them to make the connection? Shit. I really should have thought of all this through better before unmasking myself to the two of them.

Thankfully I was stopped from having to answer when we were interrupted by the front door opening.

When I saw who strode into the living room I couldn't help but feel a little nervous. It was my father in casual civilian wear, followed closely by his right hand man Yao Lang. I also couldn't help but feel a little annoyed.

"Don't you knock?" I asked them, irritation tinging my tone.

Kenta looked over everyone in the room before answering me. "Door was unlocked."

"Didn't we have a talk about being more security conscious some time ago, Shiba-san?" chimed in Yao Lang helpfully.

I didn't deign to entertain that comment with a reply. Instead I risked a glance at my friends seated on the couch. They were suddenly both very tense, especially Gina. They both looked at Kenta with wariness and just a bit of fear. I tried to look at things from their perspective. A very muscular, giant of an Asian man with his arms covered in tattoos had just barged in uninvited. He had a very _intense_ presence and seemed about as friendly as a carnivorous lizard. If I wasn't his daughter or a cape I probably would have been really intimidated by him just barging into a friend's house while I was visiting too.

Not to mention what else was probably going through their heads at the time. It didn't take a genius to figure out this was something related to the gang.

"I need to talk to you Katsuko," Kenta said while looking at me. The final unspoken word to that sentence, _alone,_ was clearly heard by everyone present.

I glanced at my friends, uncomfortable with just kicking them out. Ever eager to be helpful Yao Lang spoke up. "I'll have one of the guys drive your friends home and make sure they get there safe."

It was a bit odd and disrespectful that they were talking to me like the other two weren't even in the room, but to be honest it was more or less what I would have expected. I didn't even have to look over at Edward and Gina to know they would not want an ABB chauffeur to drive them back home. With a resigned sigh I accepted that my afternoon with my friends was now officially over.

"No driver," I said firmly to Yao Lang. "Just put them in a cab and pay for it. That will be enough."

Yao Lang just nodded to me and pulled out his cell phone. I turned to my friends and gave them an apologetic smile. "I'm _really_ sorry guys. I promise I'll make it up to you but you need to go now. I'll see you both in school, all right?"

Edward looked to be somewhere between petrified and in awe of the two dangerous looking men who had just barged into my apartment (Again, without knocking. I was going to have to make it clear to them that wasn't cool). Gina for her part looked like she was mad but was far too intimidated by the men in the room to do or say anything about it. I tried giving them my most reassuring look but I don't think it did all that much to allay their fears.

"Why don't you two come with me?" said Yao Lang with a friendly professional smile. "I'll escort you downstairs."

With a nod of encouragement from me the two of them reluctantly stood up and gathered their things before following Yao Lang out of my apartment. The door closed behind them and suddenly I was alone with my father. I couldn't help but fidget a little. We hadn't really talked since the whole blackmail thing was supposed to go down days ago. As had become more common of late I wasn't sure of how to act or how I should talk to my father.

He walked over and sat down on the couch my friends had just vacated so we were facing each other at an angle. My father wore his usual hard, expressionless look. I tried my best to meet his gaze with confidence as he looked me over with his characteristic intensity.

 _"_ _First off I wanted to talk to you about what you did with Medhall,"_ he began in Japanese.

I swallowed thickly. _"_ _Yeah?"_

My father nodded slightly. _"_ _We already received the first of the payments as you know. Tommy Oda now says we're in the clear. This will be a steady source of income for us for years to come."_

It took me a moment to remember that Tommy Oda was the ABB's lawyer. I nodded at that. _"_ _As long as it got me what I wanted, I'm glad,"_ I said, a touch of bitterness in my tone. I still hadn't completely forgiven my father for such as place as The Farm existing in the first place.

Kenta ignored my tone and pressed on. _"_ _You did good Katsuko. You impressed me. I'm… proud of you."_

Just like that any lingering hostility that I was feeling at the moment was washed away. Instead a tide of emotions swelled up in my chest. Suddenly I felt like a little girl again, eager and desperate for her father's love and approval. I looked away, rubbing my eyes as I tried desperately not to start tearing up. I couldn't remember the last time my father had said something like that to me.

 _"_ _Thanks dad,"_ I said, feeling emotional and way more happy than I should have over something so simple.

Kenta just nodded, taking my reaction in stride. After giving me just a moment to compose myself he plowed ahead with the next topic. _"_ _I need to talk to you about the nature of your involvement with my gang moving forward."_

I tried my best to push aside the emotions I was feeling with fairly decent results. Now wasn't the time for that if this is what he wanted to talk about. _"_ _What about my involvement? I don't particularly want to be involved with it actually. No offense but if there's anything else like The Farm going on I don't want any part of it."_ I tried to hide my distaste but in the end, I didn't.

Lung seemed unperturbed. _"_ _I told you when you first arrived didn't I? Because you have powers you will be compelled to use them and I will not accept you using them to pick fights unless you are a part of my gang. You are part of the ABB whether you want to be or not."_

Damn it. I did remember that conversation. Especially the part where I would inevitably end up getting into fights because I wouldn't be able to control myself. I understood that being recognized as part of the ABB probably meant I would be safer when that eventually happened. Capes were compelled to use their powers. Everything I'd read confirmed that fact. However I wasn't entirely comfortable with the thought of being known as part of the ABB.

 _"_ _Do I really have to be?"_ I asked him.

 _"_ _Yes,"_ he said firmly.

 _"_ _But I don't really want-"_

 _"_ _Katsuko,"_ he said sharply, cutting me off. _"_ _This is not a discussion. You are part of the ABB now. Is that understood?"_

We locked gazes then, staring each other down. Pitting our wills against each other. After nearly a full minute, however, I was the one to look away first. Looking down at the ground in between my feet I couldn't help but feel a bit resentful.

 _"_ _Yes father. I understand,"_ I said quietly, giving in and accepting his decision.

 _"_ _Good,"_ said Kenta, his posture relaxing slightly. _"_ _Are you ready to hear what your options are?"_

I nodded, keeping my gaze on the ground.

 _"_ _Your first option is to become a rank and file member of the ABB. This is the option with the least involvement for you. Basically I'll only require you to show up in order to defend the interests of the gang. That means fighting Parahumans who threaten us or attack us. Basically you would just need to be on call whenever you're needed. There would be no need for you to know or even really be involved in the business side of things."_

That… actually didn't sound nearly as bad as what I'd feared. I wasn't really afraid of fighting other capes. In fact I knew part of me craved it in a way. If that was all my dad really wanted me to do… that wasn't so bad. Sure it would still make me even more of a criminal than I'd already made myself. But as long as I kept my secret identity I could still finish high school and get a scholarship to go to college like I'd always planned. That also meant I could mostly avoid the more unsavory and morally ambiguous aspects of gang life.

 _"_ _What's the second option?"_ I asked in a calm, detached tone of voice.

 _"_ _Your second option is this,"_ began Lung, leaning forward a little. _"_ _You take a more active role in the gang. You learn the business. You learn the people. You learn to run it. I will expect more from you. And in return you get to have a say in what goes on in the gang."_

I swallowed, my mouth suddenly going dry. _Shit_. I couldn't help but wonder if Lung knew me better than I had previously assumed. _Getting to have a say in the gang_ … it was a big deal. One, because maybe it meant that I could stop any of the truly evil bullshit that my dad might have rationalized himself into doing in his crusade to rule this shit hole of a city. And two, if I knew what was going on I wouldn't have to live with this gnawing doubt that maybe my own father was secretly a monster doing truly horrible shit behind my back.

I wanted to think that Lung was, if not a _good_ man, then at least like a conqueror of old. Harsh, barbaric even, but fair. With a code of behavior and lines he wouldn't cross. Like a Roman. Blood soaked conquerors, yes, but they were also a principled people who brought many benefits to the people they conquered and ruled. That was a sort of thing I could possibly respect. That sort of person I could definitely respect. That sort of person I could even… _love,_ as family. But was he really that kind of man? _Could_ he be that kind of man?

 _"_ _You would still have final say in all things,"_ I said, half-question and half statement.

 _"_ _Yes,"_ he said unapologetically. _"_ _But I will listen to you. And so will the others. You have already begun to prove yourself."_

I thought about it, my indecision clear on my face for all to see. This was… not an easy decision. While there were some compelling pros for the second option that tempted me there were also some very glaring cons. One it would almost certainly sink me waist deep into gang life… a life that was almost certainly a deprived, vicious place. Not where I would have ever pictured myself ending up even two months ago and _not_ a desirable lifestyle. Even if I could make it better it probably would always have an element of exploitation and other unpleasantness. Not to mention the fact that I might be throwing away my future if I did that. Would I really be able to finish high school with high grades and get into a good college if I was trying to make a street gang as least-bad as it could be? Somehow I had a hard time reconciling the two in my mind.

 _"_ _Katsuko,"_ said Kenta, pulling me from my thoughts. _"_ _Tell me, what do you think is the biggest problem in my gang? What do you think is my largest obstacle to victory?"_

I blinked at that, a little blindsided by the abrupt change of topic. _"_ _Why are you asking?"_

 _"_ _Humor me."_

I gave him a queer look but decided to play along with what he asked. I've always been a bit of a nerd when it comes to history and the classics, both Eastern and Western. Instead of reading Harry Potter I grew up reading The Art of War and The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. It was with that background and perspective that I now contemplated my father's question. We were quiet for a long time, Lung patiently waiting while I gathered all my thoughts and impressions about everything I'd seen into a coherent answer.

 _"_ _Ideology,"_ I finally declared.

Lung raised an eyebrow at my short statement and made a motion for me to elaborate. This was a topic I was confident in and that I felt passionate about. I did so gladly.

 _"_ _The ABB needs a narrative,"_ I began animatedly. _"_ _A reason for people to support them. The E88 has one. So do the heroes. Just think of historical conquerors. People need a reason to fight for you Lung. Most often than not that reason is an idea. A vision. Something bigger than just themselves. Without that a gang will never be more than a collection of morally dubious people all looking out for number one."_

Lung crossed his arms and sat back on the couch, seemingly giving my words serious thought. I played with the hem of my shirt and tried not to fiddle too much as he contemplated what I'd said with a small crease to his brow. I believed wholeheartedly in what I'd told him, but had I done a good enough job laying it out to convince him?

 _"_ _What do you think it should be?"_ Kenta said at last.

 _"_ _What?"_ I asked with a little bit of confusion. _"_ _You mean your vision for the gang?"_

 _"_ _Yes."_

I opened my mouth before snapping it shut with a click. _"_ _I… don't know."_

 _"_ _But you do think you could come up with something good,"_ Lung said. It was far more a statement than a question.

 _"_ _I don't know… maybe."_ I said with an awkward shrug.

 _"_ _Then I expect you to present your proposals to me this weekend."_

 _"_ _Wait… what?"_

Lung ignored my flabbergasted expression and rose to his feet. He walked over and patted my shoulder a little awkwardly before leaving his hand there and looking me in the eye. _"_ _You did good Katsuko. I'll see you again soon."_ With that he turned and headed for the door.

He was already opening the front door when I regained my wits enough to say something. _"_ _Wait, I never agreed to the second option!"_

Lung turned around just enough to look at me with a quirked eyebrow. _"_ _Yes you did. If you don't realize that then maybe you're not as smart as I think you are."_

I just stared after him, speechless, as he exited my apartment and closed the door behind him.

-


	12. Chapter 10

**The Art of War**

Chapter 10  
==========

"Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop."

 _-Ovid._

 **November 10, 2016**

After my father left I was left all alone in my apartment. Alone with my thoughts. Alone with my feelings. Though normally I didn't have any trouble enjoying a little bit of "me" time in that moment I really wished I had someone or something to distract me.

It had begun getting dark outside while we were having our conversation and now my apartment was shrouded in lengthening shadows. I threw myself back on the love seat I was on and rubbed my eyes. Holy crap. So that had happened. Now I was part of the ABB… officially. Whether I wanted to or not.

A very displeased and troubled frown spread across my face. Damn it. When I had first moved here I'd been afraid of this… getting pushed into dad's gang. Back then some part of me had worried that the only reason my dad had wanted me around now was because of my powers. So that he could use them. Use me. Did I still think my father was primarily interested in me as a cape, as opposed to me as his daughter?

I didn't know. I honestly didn't bloody know. And that thought was profoundly disheartening and depressing.

To top it off I didn't really feel like I had a choice. What was I supposed to do? Simply say no? That would sort of be like the nuclear option. Not one I was willing to take lightly since it would almost certainly severely damage my already nascent, fragile relationship with my father. Still it was a small relief to know that I at least had that option.

 _Fuck_. Now I was feeling unhappy, stressed and antsy. Suddenly I didn't want to be alone and I didn't want to stay inside. I felt a sudden pang of loss at Edward and Gina being gone. But… you know what? It probably wasn't a good idea to rely on them for all of my pleasurable social interactions. An idea suddenly sprang up in my mind. With a slight upward turning of my lips I got up, went to my bedroom and fired up my laptop.

I'd always been really active all my life. That activity had mostly been confined to two things that I enjoyed: martial arts and dance. I'd dabbled heavily in the two of them because I enjoyed them both and because they kept me fit. Looking down I pinched my stomach with a slight grimace. Over the last month and a half since moving to Brockton Bay I'd been pretty inactive and had definitely started putting on some undesirable weight. If I wanted to keep my sexy flat stomach I was definitely going to have to start doing some exercise again.

So it was settled then. I was going to go out. Be social. Meet new people. Blow off some steam. Plus also make sure to keep my body fit and looking good. Awesome. But _what_ was I going to do exactly?

It occurred to me that Kenta would probably tell me to do martial arts. He'd probably tell me it was better since I'd be fighting as a cape. Lung wouldn't want me to dance. He would probably think dancing was a waste of time.

 _Dance it is._

Opening up my browser I started searching for any dance studios in town. Very quickly I found myself disappointed. Back in Tampa dance studios had been fairly commonplace. However the more I searched on the internet for local dance studios the more a suspicion started to grow. Brockton Bay was in dire economic straits, everyone could see that. When people had less money and businesses started to close… wouldn't non-essential businesses be the hardest hit? I found some references to some dance studios but those had closed years ago. I felt a wave of depression hit me as it seemed that none were left.

Just when I was about to give up hope I did find a Facebook page for a dance studio still operating in Brockton Bay. As far as I could tell it was the last and only dance studio left in the whole city. Looking at the address it looked to be inside of ABB territory, close to our border with the E88. Not that far from my apartment either which was convenient. Looking at the operating hours it looked like the place was open right now. Perfect.

However… the place was really too far to walk. I'd need a ride. And for some reason I really wasn't in the mood to have anyone in the ABB give me a ride. Which was inconvenient, since they were the only people I knew that I could really ask for one.

A devilish smirk spread across my face as a thought occurred to me. My dad wanted me to be a criminal so badly? Fine. I'd just have to oblige him then.

Getting up I raced across my bedroom, tearing open drawers to find something appropriate to wear. Black sports leggings, a sports bra and a loose tank top over it and I was ready to go. Putting on a pair of sneakers and grabbing my keys I practically bounced out of my apartment and raced downstairs.

Once I was out on the street I took off at jog to my destination a couple of blocks away. As I was running it occurred to me as I looked around that this wasn't the sort of neighborhood I would have felt safe running through at night before my trigger. Especially dressed the way I was meant that I was practically asking for trouble.

… Then again, I had pretty much nothing to worry about didn't I? I was in the heart of ABB territory and pretty much everyone knew my face around here by now. The criminal element was all ABB and none of them would dare hassle me. So, paradoxically, this gang infested part of town was probably the safest place I could go running at night as a teenage girl wearing tight exercise clothes. Hmm. Something to think about there, I was sure.

After a few minutes of running I arrived at my destination.

It was an auto repair shop called Musashi's which, while operating as a legitimate business, also served as an operation where the gang laundered large quantities of money. It also served as something of a motor pool for the gang. If they had legitimate gang business certain members could go there to borrow a car in order to carry out their duties.

I burst in the front door like I owned the place. The usual operator of the store, Changpu, was sitting at the front desk reading and practically jumped out of his seat at my loud entrance. He gaped at me as I sauntered over behind the front desk full off confidence and swagger. I snagged one of the keys off one of the many hooks on the wall and turned on my heel.

"I'm taking a car Changpu," I said over my shoulder as strutted out the front door. "Later."

"Wait, you're not supposed to-" I heard him say, but his weak protests were cut off as the door shut behind me.

Feeling empowered I sauntered my way over to the most fun car in the motor pool. It was an old, beat up yellow Jeep Wrangler. I opened the car and slid into the slightly torn leather seats. _Nice._ Turning on the car I put her in drive and being pulling out of the parking lot. Changpu come out of the store just as I was pulling out, looking like he wanted to stop me but not quite having the guts to do so. I winked at him cheekily as I revved the engine and took off for the open road.

Yeah, he'd probably call Kenta or Yao Lang but in that moment I couldn't bring myself to care. I couldn't help it. I let out a slightly hysterical giggle as I felt the wind hit me on the open cab.

So, what in the hell was I doing? I mean I didn't have a driver's license. Or insurance. And I was pretty sure that maybe technically, I'd just stolen that car.

What the hell was I doing? I'd always been such a good girl. Respect authority, follow the rules, all of that. Now I was breaking like a half dozen laws on a whim so I could go check out a dance studio. What the hell was I doing?

Maybe there was more of my dad in me than I'd previously assumed.

Just for the hell of it I cranked up the radio, began singing along to a catchy pop song and started dancing in my seat. However I made sure to keep both my hands on the wheel and to drive strictly within the speed limit. I wasn't quite ready to go _that_ wild after all.

 **The Art of War**

It was on a rundown block that didn't look all that much different from all the other ones around it that I found what I was looking for. The dance studio didn't have much to mark it as such, no large glass windows on the front as had been normal in Tampa. Instead only the name over the door in faded white letters gave any indication as to what the place was.

 _Jesus De La Fuente's Fabulous Dance Studio_

Something about the name made my lips quirk upwards. Well. _I_ certainly wasn't going to disparage anyone who wanted to be fabulous.

As I walked up to the door I could hear music that I liked pounding inside. _This looks promising._ Without further ado I opened the door and let myself inside.

Inside the studio had the lights dimmed with only a large circle in the center being illuminated. In the middle were three girls about my age, one Asian, one Hispanic and one black who were in the middle of a dance choreography. About twenty people or so were standing outside of the circle of light, cheering and cat calling in a friendly way. I closed the door behind me and stood off to the side to watch the performance.

The girls that were dancing… they were pretty good. _Really_ good actually. They were dancing to the song Me Too by Megan Trainor. The choreography they were doing was… just awesome. It was so full of life and energy. It was challenging. It was sexy. And most important of all, it looked really really _fun._ Almost without realizing it I found myself cheering for the three girls along with the rest of the class and swaying my hips to the beat.

Damn, but those girls could _move_.

All of a sudden two guys jumped in and began to dance as well, slightly out of step with the girls but obviously coordinated to be exactly that way. The dancers moved in and out of step with each other, making for an entertaining visual spectacle. Then at last they came to the grand finale, all five dancers breathing hard but smiling as the rest of the class around them erupted into cheers.

With that introduction it was more or less instant love between me and _Jesus De La Fuente's Fabulous Dance Studio._

 **The Art of War**

Afterwards I wandered over by the front desk while the class seemed to take a break. It wasn't long before I was approached by a man I had spotted earlier. He was close to six feet tall and somewhere in his mid to late twenties. The man was darkly Hispanic with an absolutely gorgeous lady killer smile… which was something of a shame, since he was also obviously very, very gay.

"Sup sister," he said to me as he slid up to the desk in a tank top that showed off some nicely lithe muscles. His teeth were pearly white and his smile was at least a bazillion watts. "Haven't seen you around here before."

I put my hands on my hips and looked him up and down playfully. "Never been here before. You're Jesus aren't you?"

The man laughed loudly. "That's me, yeah. Was it that easy to figure out?"

I shrugged. "Saw your picture on Facebook."

"Ah," he said with a chuckle while spreading his arms wide. "That's me, guilty as charged."

I couldn't help but instantly like the guy. He was extremely charming and there was something really personable about him. Plus apparently he could really teach people how to dance.

"Did you put together that choreography?" I asked with a tilt of my head, indicating the piece we'd just seen.

Jesus's smile broadened even further, looking proud of himself. "I did. Did you like it?"

I pretended to think about it for a second before giving him a teasing smile. "It wasn't _too_ bad."

"Ouch," he said clutching his chest dramatically. "How you wound me girl. Hey, I never did catch your name."

"Call me Kat."

"Well Kat. You've seen a bit of what we do. What do you say? You think you might be interested in signing up, trying out some fabulous dance moves? You won't find a better place in town, I promise you."

"That would be kinda hard, seeing as this is the only place left in town."

Jesus's smile faltered a bit. "Yeah, it is. Don't blame everyone else for taking off personally. The gangs, the violence, the lack of work… it makes it tough to run a business like this in this town. But this dance studio is my baby. I couldn't just let it go."

I felt a surge of guilt at hearing that the gangs were part of the reason places like this shut down. Casting my eyes around for something to draw my attention I found one of the flyers for the studio. Pulling it over I quickly scanned the prices. My eyebrows shot up at what I saw.

"Wow Jesus… I'm glad you are still in business, really, but what's with these prices?"

Jesus raised an eyebrow at that, looking amused. "What's wrong with my prices, baby girl?"

"Well. They're… reasonable. _Really_ reasonable. I moved here from Florida recently and the dance studios down there charged a lot more than this."

"You moved here?" Jesus asked looking almost shocked at the notion. Then he shook it off and just shrugged before answering my question. "People in Florida make more money I guess. These kids couldn't afford that and for a lot of them it's really good for them that they're in here. Keeps them out of trouble you know?"

"So you keep this place open to… what? Keep kids out of gangs?" I asked a little incredulously, and just a little bit fascinated too.

"That's part of the reason," Jesus said, suddenly looking a bit self-conscious. "I'm just trying to do my part. And hey like I said, this studio's my baby. I wouldn't shut her down unless I just didn't have any other choice, you know?"

I bit my lip as I chewed that over. Something told me that this place wasn't exactly a gold mine. I gave Jesus a look out of the corner of my eye. "ABB giving you any trouble?"

Jesus winced and grimaced a little. "Same bullshit as with every other business around here. Gang territory, you know how it is."

I frowned but nodded at that. No doubt Jesus had to pay protection money just like everyone else. Maybe I could do something about that.

"So what do you say Kat?" Jesus said, his demeanor perking up again. "You wanna stay for the rest of the class? We've got a couple of hours left. Totally free. Then you can show me some of your moves, baby girl," he said, throwing his arms up and doing some playful and teasing dance moves on the spot.

What could I say to an offer like that?

"Hell yes I want to stay," I said to him with a grin. "Show me what you've got Mr. Fabulous and I'll show you mine."

"Oh hell yeah baby girl. You're on."

OOOOOO

AN: If you're curious about the dance that Kat saw, look up the dance choreography for that song done by JoJo Gomez on Youtube.

Alternatively there will be some reference to music and videos in this story. If you want to see them integrated right into the text you can check this story out over at SpaceBattles.


	13. Chapter 11

**The Art of War**

 ****

 **==========  
Chapter 11  
==========**

"We will always strike first. We will always deliver the first blow."

 _-Adolf Hitler._

 **November 24, 2010**

"Well, first of all the Azn Bad Boys is a terrible name. I really think it needs to be changed as a part of a larger rebranding of the gang."

The appointed day for our meeting had come and me and my father were eating Chinese takeout in my little kitchen nook. The table and the space seemed just a little too small for his massive bulk but that didn't seem to trouble him in the slightest. I'd been worried that he wouldn't take my suggestion well but he didn't seem bothered as he continued to tear in to his Mongolian beef.

"Explain," he said simply in between bites. The way the man was eating you would think he hadn't eaten in three days.

I picked at my own shrimp stir fry as I chose my words carefully. "Well, Azn Bad Boys just sends all the wrong signals. Please don't get offended but it sounds vaguely juvenile. It also unequivocally makes your gang sound like a bunch of bad guys. That perception is already going to be hard enough to shake off, what with being a criminal gang and having a history of kidnapping helpless innocent girls and stuff."

Kenta gave me an unreadable look with a raised eyebrow. "We _are_ 'a bunch of bad guys' as you put it. That's not going to change."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and found myself sliding into speaking Japanese. It just seemed so much more natural to talk to my father in that language. _"_ _Yes, yes but just because you commit crimes people don't_ have _to perceive you as something bad."_

At my father's deeply skeptical look I frowned and tried to come up with a concrete way to get across what I was thinking.

 _"_ _Look, maybe a bad example, but Mao, Stalin and Hitler were all evil sons of bitches but the people still loved them. I'm not saying it would be easy. But if you really want to run this city one day you need the people that live here to like you, or at least be willing to tolerate you as their best option. And that means changing how people see the ABB."_

Kenta seemed to mull that over as he filled his plate for a third time. At a much more sedate pace I ate my own meal. I really hated that I was so bad at reading my father. I honestly couldn't tell if he thought I was making some good arguments or if he was just humoring me at this point.

 _"_ _You said you thought the Azn Bad Boys was a terrible name. What sort of name do you think would be so much better then?"_

It wasn't hard to hear the challenge in his tone and I wondered if I'd offended him by berating the name of his gang. Well I wasn't about to let myself be intimidated by that because I knew I was right. Azn Bad Boys was a terrible name. I'd thought long and hard about a name that would both work and would most likely be acceptable to my father. I looked him in the eye and told him what I'd come up with.

 _"_ _I think you should rename the gang the Noble Dragons."_

Damn it, but his poker face was good. He didn't show any reaction and simply made a vague motion with his hand for me to go on as he continued eating. Taking a deep breath I began to lay out more of what I had been thinking about. I'd given this a _lot_ of thought coupled with some research over the last few days, a lot more thought than I'd originally thought I'd be giving it to be honest.

 _"_ _And that's not all,"_ I began. _"_ _The gang needs to change to be more inclusive. I looked it up and Asians make up about twenty four percent of Brockton Bay's population. We may be the largest minority but that still won't be nearly enough. Just look at the E88. Their white-centric ideology arguably hurts them as much as it helps them and that's with whites making up nearly sixty percent of the population,"_

 _"_ _My idea is this: rebrand as the Noble Dragons. The name gives the impression that we're a group that_ all _people can potentially trust. Also start recruiting non-Asians. Especially capes. If people see a non-Asian cape in the Noble Dragons that will be a powerful message that the gang is now more inclusive and that will symbolically go further than anything we can say."_

Kenta's brow frowned deep as I finished speaking. For the first time since our conversation stared I began to get a bit fidgety. Unless I was missing my guess Lung didn't look especially pleased right now.

 _"_ _Did you forget? My goal is to rule this city Katsuko. How is any of this supposed to help me achieve that? All these changes, as much as they might theoretically help, can also potentially destabilize my power base. Explain to me, in concrete terms, why you think all of these risks are worth the benefit?"_

I couldn't help but start to feel irritated. How had I not been clear? To me the benefits were all self-evident. If anything my father was just being intractable and bullheaded. Throwing caution to the wind I spoke my mind. He asked me for my advice and if he didn't like what I had to say then that was just too bad.

 _"_ _Because you'll never achieve your 'dream' otherwise,"_ I told him, letting my frustration color my tone. _"_ _You think 'ruling' a city is about being the strongest cape around? No. It's about getting a majority of the people, or at least the important people, to accept you as being in charge. Examine history and you'll see how right I am. It has_ never _worked any other way. Or maybe you want to be like one of those African warlords instead? Fine. Assuming the Protectorate doesn't drop the Triumvirate on your head you'd still need to have a large enough army and enough capes to terrify everyone into submission. For that you'd still need non-Asians in your gang."_

I took a deep breath. Though I couldn't be sure I thought that my father was a little surprised at my impassioned outburst. Frowning at him I continued before I thought better of it and changed my mind.

 _"_ _Best way to get people to change how they think about the gang is to make sure everyone knows we're providing them with something they need. Maybe its protection. Or more economic opportunities. Or making sure we seem like the best option around. For that you need to rebrand. And you need to change your recruiting strategies,"_ I paused thoughtfully for a moment as I tapped a nail on the table. _"_ _Probably should think about adding some catchy slogans too. Those always seem to work really well. People really fall for a good slogan."_

 _"_ _Oh?"_ Lung said after a beat of silence, his voice positively dripping sarcasm. _"_ _Is that all then?"_

 _"Actually I have a lot of other ideas that I came up with,"_ I said, lifting my chin and not letting his tone get to me. _"_ _But if you don't want to adopt any of this then I don't see any of them working out."_

Kenta shot me a glare and then began tearing into his food with more force than was strictly necessary. After it became obvious he wasn't immediately going to respond to my proposal for the gang I began to eat as well. The silence between us was a bit tense. I thought that Lung was silently contemplating everything that I'd just said. Either that or I'd just really pissed him off.

To be fair I _was_ suggesting some radical changes to his organization. It would be silly to expect him to just agree to them on the spot. In fact that he was (probably) even taking the time to consider what I'd said without outright rejection was probably a good sign.

 _Why did I care though?_ The answer to that came surprisingly easy. As I ate my shrimp I contemplated what had finally begun to sink in for me: I had a say in how major criminal organization was run. With that say I wanted to minimize the damage the ABB did and to make sure no atrocities like the Farm sprung up under Kenta's command ever again. Secondary to that I also kind of wanted to help my father achieve his dream of ruling the city. Luckily in my mind those two goals went hand in hand.

I was starting to understand that for all his strengths my father had done a very poor job on a strategic scale when it came to achieving his ambition. Perhaps… he wasn't as well educated on the subject, or maybe he just didn't think well in those terms. Whatever the case if he didn't change his modus operandi he was never going to succeed. Maybe… the whole adviser thing wouldn't be so bad. Even though we still had some severe differences between us I really liked the idea of becoming indispensable to my father.

My musing was interrupted when my father's phone went off. He pulled it out and answered it without stopping his eating. "What?" he said into the phone in English around a mouthful of food.

I watched with growing alarm as my father's expression grew more and more stormy as he listened whoever was talking to him on the other end. His posture tensed and I got the impression that Lung was suddenly very ready to hit or burn something. I stopped eating and focused on being as quiet as possible while he continued to listen.

Lung fired back rapidly in what I'm pretty sure was Cantonese before handing up the phone. Without waiting another moment he stood up. It seemed that he was about to leave before he remembered I was there. Looking at me with angry eyes he spoke to me in rapid fire Japanese.

 _"_ _The Empire has attacked us in three different places simultaneously. This act of aggression was unprovoked and is completely intolerable. When it gets dark I will be going out with Lee. We will pay the Empire back for this insult."_

Involuntarily I shivered at his hard, furious tone. From what I had learned this was a definite breach of the status quo between the gangs. Shit. Why was this happening now? I couldn't help but feel a pit in my stomach as I thought of what the possible ramifications of this sudden development might be.

 _"_ _Do you,"_ I began, hesitating to make the offer. _"_ _Do you… want, or need my help?"_

Lung's eyes narrowed as he debated it before shaking his head. _"_ _No. Me and Lee will be more than enough. But keep your phone on you. Before this is all over I suspect I will be calling on you to defend our territory."_

I felt my mouth go dry at that. _"_ _Oh."_

Not waiting for a more intelligible reply from me Lung turned and left my apartment without even saying goodbye. I slumped in my seat, suddenly alone except for a small forest of Chinese takeout boxes. When my father had demanded I'd be on call for the gang I didn't really think he would be collecting on that… quite so soon.

I couldn't help but have a bad feeling about what was coming.

 _... Kuso._

-


	14. Chapter 12

**The Art of War**

 ****

 **Chapter 12  
==========**

"Adventure is worthwhile."

 _-Aristotle._

 **December 8, 2010**

It was after school and I was with Gina in her family's apartment indulging in being really girly for once. I sat on the floor of her small room against the bed while my bluenette friend concentrated on painting my toenails. I let my head hang back and closed my eyes, allowing myself the luxury of rest for a few minutes.

"So," began Gina after a few minutes of comfortable silence. The girl sounded very hesitant which was uncharacteristic of her. "I uh, I've been hearing things. Sounds like there's a real gang war going on out there."

That's what she was worried about asking? It wasn't exactly a secret. Well, maybe a lot of regular people didn't even realize what was going on. All the little skirmishes hadn't gotten a lot of media attention yet. Maybe that was because so far no innocent bystanders had gotten caught in the crossfire. Guess when it was only gangbangers hurting each other people didn't really care all that much.

I let out an exasperated sigh. "Gang war. Crud. Yeah. I guess you could call it that."

Gina shifted awkwardly. She must have sensed how much this was bothering me. "Do you… want to talk about it?" she offered tentatively, sounding just a bit uncomfortable.

To my surprise I found I kind of did. The last two weeks had been tiring and incredibly frustrating. Sure there were some things I really wouldn't be able to share with Gina… but at the same time I really, really needed someone to vent to a little bit.

"I'm irritated as fuck," I began as Gina continued to paint my toenails. "The Empire has been doing hit and run attacks into our territory. Six times in the last two weeks I've gotten a call in the middle of the night to go to one of our operations that was being hit by the Nazis. By the time I get there they are already gone or retreating. Ugh, fucking pussies."

Intellectually I knew it was a sound strategy. Somehow the Empire had gotten far better knowledge about where ABB operations were located than anyone had suspected. Hitting us and disrupting business, destroying drugs, terrorizing "costumers" and wrecking equipment… I wasn't an expert on how gangs worked but obviously being able to do that with minimal losses was putting the hurt on us.

Worse for me personally was the frustration of not being able to fight. In fact in the last two weeks of this "gang war" I hadn't gotten into even a single fight and it was starting to drive me crazy. It was a new feeling for me, wanting to get into a serious fight, and it was not a feeling that I felt particularly inclined to change. Their capes just didn't seem inclined to stand and fight. Swoop in, wreck some shit, hurt some ABB members, and then run away like frightened rabbits. Pussies.

The Empire having a vast numerical superiority in their capes was really hurting us badly. The bastards had even busted Stormtiger and Cricket out of prison the previous week further bolstering their numbers. A lot of their capes were pretty weak but their quantity was a definite strength of its own.

"What's Lung been doing about it?" Gina asked. Her lip curled slightly in distaste when she said his name. I tried not to let that bother me.

I shrugged. "About what you would expect. He waltzes into their territory and starts tearing stuff up in retaliation. Problem is he's doing a lot less damage to them than they are doing to us. Lung only knows where some of their operations are. Unless he starts burning down their whole territory I don't think the Empire is going to give him a straight up fight that plays to his strengths."

My casual mention of Lung "burning down their whole territory" made Gina visibly blanch. That puzzled me a bit until I remembered that she was just a regular person. For me a fire would be an inconvenience. For someone like Gina it could be deadly. I also knew that she really hated the ABB.

I frowned to myself and bit my lip as I looked at Gina. She did hate the ABB didn't she? And that brought up a question I was suddenly very interested in.

"Gina, don't take this the wrong way but… why are you my friend exactly?" I asked her softly.

Gina twitched a little but didn't look up from painting my nails. "What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean," I said with a roll of my eyes. Lowering my voice I continued. "I'm an ABB cape. Which makes me a gang member, technically. You _hate_ the ABB. But you're also my friend. So what gives?"

My question seemed to make Gina profoundly uncomfortable. She stopped painting my nails and seem conflicted as to how to reply. After a few seconds she let out a breath and sat back on her hands looking at me square on. Her expression was serious but strangely vulnerable at the same time.

"You're right I hate the gang. I really really hate it. But it also scares the shit out of me," she said before taking a deep breath. "I know you. If I'm your friend then I know that me and my family will be protected. That's more than enough to offset you being part of the ABB."

My face fell at that. Was that the only reason Gina was my friend? At seeing my expression the girl almost rushed to continue.

"That's not the only reason though!" she added quickly, looking panicked like she knew she'd said something wrong. "You saved me from… from _that_ place when you didn't even know me. That counts for a lot. For _so much_. And I'm sure you have your own reasons for being affiliated with that horrible gang but even if you're a criminal you're not a bad person. Exactly the opposite in fact. If you were a terrible person I wouldn't be your friend no matter how much it might protect us."

We locked gazes and I was moved by the sincere intensity in her eyes, willing me to believe her. I looked away first, suddenly feeling a little teary eyed. Wordlessly Gina got up and moved to sit next to me, wrapping her arm around me in a sideways hug. I let my head fall to rest against hers and closed my eyes. We stayed like that for a few minutes, each of us feeling emotional for different reasons.

Eventually though Gina broke our embrace, sniffing a little. "Well, uh… I'm pretty much done with your toes. You want to watch a movie or something?"

I glanced over at the clock on her nightstand and shook my head. "I'd love to but I can't. I have to get going in a bit. Got some business to attend to."

"Oh?" said Gina, her tone curious but I knew she wouldn't get offended if I chose not to answer.

I debated if I should tell her where I was going before deciding there was no harm in it. "Remember that Tinkertech thing I got for the Medhall heist?"

"Yeah."

"Well it's time to pay the piper. I'm going to meet with Uber and Leet about this videogame thing they want me to participate in as part of our deal for getting that computer gizmo from them. Hopefully it won't be something too stupid. At least I can't see them asking me to play Princess Peach."

"You're doing that now?" asked Gina a little incredulously. "In the middle of a gang war?"

I shrugged. "Why not? I don't want to put my life on hold. If I get a call then I'll just leave. Hopefully in won't come to that though."

Gina didn't look convinced but just shrugged. "I guess you would know best, Kat."

I huffed in laughter at that. "Not really. Trust me, I'm just making all of this up as I go along."

For some reason that didn't make Gina look particularly reassured.

✌✌✌The Art of War✌✌✌

One of the small side benefits of all the ongoing fighting was that if Lung wanted me to get around to put out fires then that meant I needed a car of my own. Or at least that is what I had insisted on. So without much resistance the old yellow Jeep that I had "appropriated" weeks ago from the motor pool was now more or less officially mine. I still didn't have a license or insurance but after the past two hectic weeks that didn't even register as an issue anymore.

Since that "gang war" had started I had gotten myself something of a cape outfit out of necessity. My outfit consisted of thick black cargo pants, a black long sleeve shirt with a black tactical vest on top of it. A large black Kato mask completed the outfit as it turned out I wasn't really a fan of wearing a full face mask. The best thing about my costume was that the clothes were large enough and the material stretchy enough to accommodate me when I grew into my armored form. It was a simple and not very impressive outfit but it got the job done. Eventually I'd probably need to see about getting a more professionally made costume.

I parked a few blocks away from my destination and broke into an old abandoned building to change into my cape costume. Uber and Leet wanted me to meet them in an old abandoned television repair shop. Leaving through a different door I took off jogging towards my destination.

Before long I found myself at the back of the repair shop knocking on the door. There was something that sounded like a good natured scuffle on the other side before a few moments before the door was thrown open. Waiting for me on the other side was Leet in full costume, looking me up and down and wagging his eyebrows at me in a completely cheesy manner.

"Hey there, beautiful," he said to me in the worst Antonio Banderas impersonation I had ever heard. "Are you a parking ticket? Because you've got _fine_ written all over you."

I rolled my eyes but couldn't help but crack a smile. "That was absolutely _terrible_ and you should be ashamed," I said, pushing the door open and forcing my way in past him. "You're lucky I don't just turn you into a greasy spot on the floor for that. I'd be doing the world a service as far as I'm concerned."

Leet shrugged playfully and grinned at me. "Come on Kuro you know how it is. Don't hate the player, hate the game!"

Leet was scrawny, blond and about an inch shorter than me which made him pretty short for a guy. He was currently dressed in a pretty subdued outfit for him from what I'd seen of their videos, basically a white bodysuit with red gloves and a utility belt. I couldn't help but think of Leet as someone's little brother. Funny and obnoxious in equal parts but still coming across as _generally_ good natured.

"Whatever," I said, rolling my eyes at him with a small smile on my face. "How has the life of video game crime been treating you?"

"Same old same old. Working hard for the greater glory of the art and all that. How about you? After we found out you joined the ABB we were afraid you might get all high and mighty and back out on our deal."

I shook my head. "Naw, I like to keep my word. It's not something I'll break easily. Speaking of the ABB though we should probably get this show on the road. If the Empire attacks I might have to split in a hurry."

Leet winced at the reminder that there was a gang war going on right now. "Sure. This way, we're set up in the basement."

He led us further into the shop and down an old, rickety set of stairs. Downstairs the basement was more spacious than I would have guessed for a building that size and it was surprisingly clean. There were long tables with parts of multicolored armor scattered all around and a few other half-completed Tinkertech projects. I knew that this couldn't be their "main" base but it looked like this was where they were preparing and building whatever it was they needed for their next show.

A tall and muscular teenager stood up from where he was fiddling with a laptop when he saw us walk in. It was Uber, the other half of Borckton Bay's little video game partnership. Unlike Leet he was simply wearing a turtleneck with jeans and a mask that covered everything but his mouth. With a broad smile he walked over to me and offered his hand for me to shake.

"Good to see you again Kuro. I'm glad that we'll be working together on this after all," he said in a tone that managed to be both lighthearted and professional.

I nodded and shook his hand while offering him a small smile. "I said I would and here I am. Nice to see that at least one of you has a sense of decorum though."

Between the two of them Uber definitely came across as the more serious and professional one… though to be honest that wasn't a particularly hard feat to achieve when comparing yourself to Leet. He also treated me very gentlemanly and was a pretty good looking guy. If it wasn't for the mess of secret identities, gangs and conflicting criminality I'd seriously consider asking him out.

"Who needs decorum when you have awesome?" said Leet in overly dramatic faux-bafflement.

Uber and I both ignored him which I couldn't help but find kind of hilarious. Instead Uber let go of my hand and stepped to the side, motioning to where three chairs had been set up in front of a television. "I heard you say that you might not have much time. If you don't mind Kuro we'll get started."

With a nod I moved to take a seat. Obviously they wanted to show me something. On the way I asked, "When are you planning on holding the show?"

"Either tomorrow night or the day after," Uber replied. "Do you think you can make sure you can get away for a few hours uninterrupted?"

I suppressed a wince. Lung wouldn't be happy. But… I was pretty sure I could get away with telling him I would be unavailable for a few hours. There wasn't much he could really do to stop me and I _had_ agreed to do this thing for Uber and Leet.

"Yeah. I can do that."

"Good," said Uber, sounding relieved. "It would be pretty much impossible to find a good replacement for you at this point."

"Yeah, we've been wanting to do this skit for a long time," said Leet cutting in with a great deal of enthusiasm. "When we saw your whole black armor thing we had a lot of great ideas, but this is one idea that we've been wanting to do forever and we really needed someone with some serious Brute strength to pull it off. There's only so much you can do even when you're a Tinker as awesome as me."

I refrained from commenting on that last comment. "Okay. So what video game are we going to be doing?"

Uber and Leet turned to look at each other and suddenly each of them got a broad grin on their faces. I swear they looked just like little boys. They both turned to me, excitement practically radiating off them in waves.

"Not exactly a video game," Uber said. "Have you ever heard of Red vs Blue?"

I sat down on the middle chair in front of the television and scrunched my brow as I tried to remember. "Doesn't ring a bell. What is it?"

"It's probably better if we just show you," said Leet, sounding positively giddy. I looked at him skeptically while he turned on the TV and hooked up a laptop to it. "Trust me this is totally awesome. Feast your eyes on Red vs Blue, Season 8, Chapter 10."

With a put upon sigh I crossed my legs and leaned back on the chair as the two cape nerds sat down on either side of me. I swear they were so excited you'd think they were getting laid. A few more key strokes from Leet and the video started.

"You my dear," said Leet with a grin, "get to be Agent Texas."

I'll just summarize the whole thing. The video was basically a video game skit of a bunch of idiots in red and blue futuristic armor getting their asses kicked by a chick in the same armor done in black. I'll admit it was more cool and entertaining than I had really expected it to be. It was really slapstick which I definitely liked. I also saw what Leet had meant about super strength. The one in black armor did a lot things that would require it, like punting an armored man across a warehouse and catching a falling shipping container with her bare hands. Some of the things she did also took a lot of agility. Frankly I wasn't sure how well I would be able to replicate all of that. Now all the multicolored pieces of armor on the tables made a lot more sense.

"You seriously think we can do all that without people getting hurt?" I asked cautiously once the video ended.

"Yes, absolutely," Leet replied right away.

"We wouldn't do it otherwise," added Uber.

"Especially since we plan to use PRT agents to be most of the reds and blues."

I blinked. "That… sounds like a terrible idea."

"Meh, we'll make it work," said Uber with a shrug.

"So what do you say Kuro?" said Leet, turning to face me and practically bouncing on his seat like an overexcited puppy. "Are you in?"

I sighed. Well. I was already wanted for theft at Medhall and was part of a gang with capes that had legit murdered people, including my own father. Would "kidnapping" a few PRT agents for a completely tasteless prank be all that much worse? Fuck it. I'd said I do it. As long as nobody got seriously hurt I wasn't going to back out on our deal.

"This is safe? And no one gets hurt?" I asked them, my voice and posture suddenly turning deadly serious.

Uber and even Leet sobered up at my tone. They looked at each other, communicating something silently, before Uber turned to face me. His tone was more serious than I'd ever heard from him.

"You have our word. This is totally safe. No one gets hurt."

I scrutinized him for a few long, quiet moments before nodding slowly. "Fine," I said. "As long as you keep your word then I'll be your Agent Texas."

Then I let my serious demeanor fall away and replaced it with a smirk. "Now show me what I have to do."

-


End file.
